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AMERICAN AUTHORS SERIES 


GENERAL EDITOR 
STANLEY T. WILLIAMS 


THE HAFNER LIBRARY OF CLASSICS 
[Number Twenty: Corron MATHER] 


~ 


SELECTIONS FROM 


COTTON MATHER 


EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY 


KENNETH B. MURDOCK 


HAFNER PUBLISHING CO. 
NEW YORK 


Copyright, 1926, by 


Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc. 


Reprinted by Arrangement 


Published by 
HAFNER PUBLISHING Co., INC. 
31 East 10th Street 
New York 3, N. Y. 


Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 
60-11056 


Printed in the U.S.A. 


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New York 3, N.Y. 


AMERICAN AUTHORS SERIES 


The chief purposes of the present series of volumes are 
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spelling and punctuation. 

The American Authors Series will also include texts 
of the standard writers of our literature. 

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CONTENTS 


Introduction: 
Teeocton Viather we cam eee fk Crier ere ee eh orate oan ix 
Pathe ocholarand: tie lan OL, Letterss.445 4.129 a hanes. XXV 
Pie the: Marnalia\ChristicAmericand. 2. 3.5 oe each ss xl 
Dyer heGhrisiian Philosophers a. Nineteen’. .inkecee ale et xlviil 
Sm Nee hGltricdl: ables cs ee se has Ay Oe Ce eel Pee liv 
Rel eeciicr 704) 7 BI) O0GWOTO tut lergs teh SALE Re re lvi 
ROMECTOT AM NCRIEX U ae Crittis,s S eae fob, aie Re apes oust ae lix 
PPIECIECTIVENUING LISC? Line tte Lo aes ee ere en ee lx1 
Magnalia Christi Americana 
SPCFeneEaINItrOGUCTLON Sat. pire eee ee et ak Nee Ee er I 
Rookelicveccesiarum Gly peresi Gren | aie Sone le este oa 37 
I. Galeacitus Secundus. The Life of William Bradford.. 40 
LIS UCCESSOLSs fate ayes ates SRO g wh toue teal. Win SI 
ay eeaire sc. Gor scr? pit, Ol, “ASSIStCNt Smeg) «2 Ae ee 56 
IV. Nehemias Americanus. The Life of John Winthrop ... 
RMS CeSSOrsH cher RG 3. Ren At eet Ai oes td 84 
Pater Patrig. The Life of Simon Bradstreet......... 97 
MigmrTIOH NimtalU Oly ASSIStantss « sees eae dy a 103 
VII... Publicola Christianus. The Life of Edward Hopkins... 110 
VITOR SUGCCESEOLS SNe Atwe s fle LL Pe Fae cute Tae ate 5 ol 119 
IX. Humilitas Honorata. The Life of Theophilus Eaton... 120 
PROMS LIC CEGSOPS Cun AN cts SAE ER See UN! ey ong et Nyy eget 132 
XI. Hermes Christianus. The Life of John Winthrop..... 135 
xed Lee Gsistents' eee ueek sa es ear nee, tensed Gs 145 
iheifesot siteWilliam hips hen eed. deka ies ee bet 149 
Selections from The Christian Philosopher.............-.005 285 
ea INrroductonse se ate ct cea oo nee ie era alack 286 
esaven ce bie Otte artic ate ieee toes Soy ee 293 
Bacau sin Liew QiViaenctisimt,, asics .ge ce bake lees 302 
ssa NY ae OTN eralsaee sen 2) cet ee me: ot ee 317 


Vill CONTENTS 


Essay X XVI. Of:thesVégetables.1 71a sc. ee 

Essay. xc ALI! (Of: Mants 12. 8h Se 
Political Fables 

I. The New Settlement of the Birds in New England.... 

Il The Elephant’s Casera little Stated.) a ee 

Tile Mercury's Negotiation... “0... ..07).. se oe 

A Letter:to/ Dr. Woodward. .jes..44. 0-20) ee 


INTRODUCTION 
I 
Cotton Mather 


THE story of Cotton Mather’s life has been often 
told. ‘There are many brief sketches of his career, 
and two full-length biographies. One of these, Bar- 
rett Wendell’s Cotton Mather, is so excellent a study 
of its difficult subject as to make quite superfluous 
any attempt to rewrite the tale. For this reason noth- 
ing more is needed here than a very short sketch of 
Mather’s life and an indication of his chief traits, 
with the briefest of comments on those phases of 
his activity which are most often misunderstood 
and those which serve most definitely to shed light 
on his historical position in our literature. 

Thus superficially considered, his life was not 
eventful. Born in Boston, March 12, 1663, he early 
showed himself precocious, and when he was twelve 
he could not only write and read Latin but speak 
it, had read most of the New Testament in Greek, 
and had made some progress in the study of Hebrew. 
With these attainments he was admitted to Har- 
vard. There he suffered somewhat at the hands 
of certain fellow students who practiced what we 
should call “hazing,” but in spite of such difficulties 
he was thoroughly at home wherever books were 
concerned and graduated triumphantly in 1678. In 
boyhood he stammered badly, and, feeling that this 
handicap unfitted him for the ministry, he planned 


1X 


Xx INTRODUCTION 


to train himself as a physician. He overcame, how- 
ever, his defects in speech, and promptly aspired 
again toward the pulpit. In 1680 he preached several 
sermons, and, in the next year, he took his degree 
of Master of Arts at Harvard. Thus at eighteen, 
he stood forth as a full-fledged candidate for the 
ministry. Young as he was, he was promptly offered 
a pastorate in New Haven, but he preferred to con- 
tinue as an assistant preacher at the Second Church 
in Boston, where he had already served in this capac- 
ity for a year. Early in 1683 his congregation called 
him to be regularly ordained as one of its two min- 
isters. He hesitated in accepting, the offer was 
repeated, and, finally, in May, 1685, he was formally 
installed as his father’s colleague at the Second Church. 
There he remained until his death, February 035057253 
and the story of his professional career is simply 
that of a devoted minister of one of the two or three 
largest churches in the American colonies. 

He was married, in 1686, to Abigail Phillips, the 
daughter of a prominent citizen and politician of 
Charlestown. She bore to him nine children, but 
five of these died early. She herself lived only until 
November, 1702, and in the next year Cotton Mather 
married again. His second wife was Elizabeth Hub- 
bard, a widow. By her he had six children, but only 
two of them lived beyond childhood. Their mother 
died in 1713, and in 1715 Mather married Lydia 
George, widow of John George of Boston. With 
her came tragedy, for she went insane, and to the 
severe trials thus brought to her husband was added 
the torment caused him by a scapegrace son. Lydia 
Mather would not allow his favorite daughter to live 
at home with him; three of his sisters were widowed 


INTRODUCTION x1 


and often in need of his aid; he was burdened by 
financial worries; his father died in 1723, and when, 
in 1728, he himself gave up a life that had been for 
years sorely checkered by affliction, of all the fifteen 
children whom he had loved, there remained alive 
but two. 

Yet, in spite of bereavements, and in spite of the 
duties of his pastorate, he studied and wrote con- 
stantly. Comment on the number of his writings, 
and on their nature, belongs elsewhere; it is sufficient 
to remember that he was throughout his life tire- 
less as a man of letters. As a minister, too, he showed 
enormous energy. To think of him merely as a pas- 
tor in a colonial town, concerned simply with preach- 
ing and the routine duties of his office, is to misread 
the record. The ministry, as he conceived it, was 
a career of leadership. In it a man must not only 
toil to elevate his people spiritually but also strive 
to educate them otherwise, guide them in every 
detail of life, chasten them for their shortcomings, 
and inspire them to interest in all that might con- 
duce to the service of God. His concrete achieve- 
ments in organizing societies for various good pur- 
poses, and in countless other forms of public service, 
are too many to list here. Cotton Mather remains 
to-day, as he was in his own time, a marvel of indus- 
try, a man of endless vigor and extraordinarily varied 
interests and accomplishments. Whatever one may 
think of his character, or his deeds in this or that 
specific instance, his life as a whole was devoted 
to the pursuit of high ideals and to the doing of good 
works. 

His family background and the environment of 
his life cannot be left out of consideration even in 


Xil INTRODUCTION 


the most cursory study. He was the eldest child 
of Increase Mather, who was, until 1701, the fore- 
most divine of New England, its most prolific and 
widely read man of letters, and for many years a 
power in affairs of state. He was President of Har- 
vard College from 1685 until 1701. From 1688 to 
1692 he served as the colonists’ representative at 
the court of England. With the beginning of the 
new century, he retired in many ways from public 
affairs, except where the church was concerned, but 
until the day of his death in 1723 he was a recognized 
leader of his generation, and one whom even his erst- 
while enemies came to respect. Throughout his life 
Cotton Mather was not only a devoted son to him 
but an ardent co-laborer in his church and in the 
other thronging interests of his busy years. Nor 
was he the only great figure whose achievements 
might nourish Cotton Mather’s family pride.  In- 
crease Mather’s father, and the grandfather of Cotton, 
was Richard Mather. Though he died in 1669, when 
his eldest grandson was but a child, his reputation, 
his books, and the results of his labors in establish- 
ing New England Congregationalism, lived after him. 
Cotton Mather’s other grandfather, also, was renowned 
among the founders of New England. He was John 
Cotton, one of the most deservedly famous of the 
divines of early Boston. Few New Englanders could 
boast of such an ancestral tradition of godliness and 
service as that which Cotton Mather inherited, and 
few New Englanders accepted more proudly than he 
the task of keeping undimmed the brightness of a 
family name. 

His relation to Richard Mather and John Cotton, 
and his devotion to his father, influenced him greatly. 


Wee 


INTRODUCTION Xill 


His grandfathers had been pioneers in New England 
Puritanism, and, as a matter of course, he respected 
what they had worked to establish. His father, 
“the greatest native Puritan,” carried on the tradi- 
tion of those who had founded New England, inspired 
by the vision of making it a place where purity of 
worship and righteousness of life should be valued 
above all else. Moreover, because Increase Mather, 
in his own day and generation, forged head and 
shoulders above his contemporaries in almost every- 
thing he undertook, his son, working by his side, 
longed that he, too, might become great and win 
victories for the right. Quite naturally Cotton Mather, 
sure that his progenitors had been prophets and saints, 
dreamed that he, in turn might achieve sainthood 
and the dignities that were theirs. Who could have 
a better claim than he to be God’s chosen champion 
in his generation? ‘There was stimulus in such thoughts 
as these, and to them Cotton Mather undoubtedly 
owed much of his tireless zeal. | 
At the same time, his pride of birth could handi-; 
cap as well as inspire. All too easily it led him to’ 
vanity, fostered by admiring friends who saw in his 
obvious talents proof that in him the virtues of his 
ancestors lived again. All too easily his close asso- 
ciation with his father’s successes made him ambitious 
for himself. If he was intemperate in his denun- 
ciation of his foes, if he was too eager for contro- 
versy with those who challenged his opinions, is it 
surprising? He believed that he, by right of birth », 
and experience, could speak as one having authority. “ 
What wonder if he was often dictatorial? What 
wonder if his attitude toward others was too fre- 
quently one of jealous rivalry? A man temperamentally 


XIV INTRODUCTION 


more stable might have saved himself from such 
shortcomings; but Cotton Mather was by nature 
impulsive, nervously sensitive, and given to exces- 
sive introspection, and he was not able to keep a 
due sense of proportion in matters which concerned 
his pride. 

His sense of the nobility of his name worked to 
his disadvantage in still another way, for inevitably 
he came to revere too emotionally all that his pro- 


genitors had revered. This would have been well, 


enough, had he lived in their times, but in his day 
the first enthusiasm of Puritan New England was 


waning fast. Men could not now recapture the full © 


zeal of their ancestors. Congregationalism still flour- 
ished, to be sure; but too often its ministers expounded 
the letter rather than the spirit. The churches were 
still crowded, but many who sat there each Sabbath- 
day were far less concerned with worship than with 
the week’s successes in trade. But nothing save the 
old ideal of religion as an all-embracing passion, noth- 
ing save the ardor of a John Cotton, could satisfy 
Cotton Mather. Thus he was apart from his times, 
not truly representative of them. His deep piety 
expressed itself only too often, therefore, 1 in querulous 


denunciations of the age. His intense religious fervor | 


produced at times almost hysterical excesses of speech 
and act. He knew how his forefathers had fasted 
and prayed, and he strove to outdo them, in a rather 
too conscious effort to prove that in him the fire burned 
as brightly as in the saints of the past. And, like many 
an admirer of bygone greatness, he suffered from the 
short-sighted criticism of men who saw in him only a 
striving to keep alive the ideas, manners, and thought 
of an older time. Probably he realized all this but 


/ , 
fo 


INTRODUCTION XV 


he would not give up one iota of his faith, or fail 
to fight for its public acceptance. So he became 
more dogmatic; so bitterness more than once crept 
into his words. Perhaps he should be blamed, but 
there is real human tragedy in his case. He battled 
valiantly for an ideal which was no less worthy be- 
cause it could no longer command the colonists’ 
allegiance. He was defeated, not because he was 
weak, but because his attempt to hold men fast to 
the religious fervor of their fathers was by chang- 
ing conditions foredoomed to fail. 

Unfortunately later criticism of him has too often 
exaggerated his shortcomings, and proved forgetful 
of his virtues. For example, every one knows that 


in popular tradition he appears as the bloodthirsty | 


persecutor responsible in large measure for the exe- ' 


cutions of the New England witches. Yet in the 
light of sober history, this is untrue. His writings 
on witchcraft, and the contemporary records, prove 
him to have been not less but more humane than 
his contemporaries. Scholars have demonstrated 
that his advice to the witch judges was always that 
they should be more cautious in accepting evidence 
against those who were haled before them. His 
point of view was consistently that of a man as eager 
to spare the innocent as to condemn the guilty. Long- 
fellow makes him say: 


“Be careful. Carry the knife with such exactness, 
That on one side no innocent blood be shed 
By too excessive zeal, and, on the other 
No shelter given to any work of darkness.” 


Such lines create a truthful picture of his attitude. 
The spectral Cotton Mather of the myth, thirsty 


XV1 INTRODUCTION 


for blood and stirring up the people to deeds of vio- 
lence, vanishes before the facts. 

Indeed, the whole history of the Salem witch trials 
of 1692 is far less important in a study of Cotton 
Mather than most accounts of him lead one to sup- 
pose. lo be sure, he was deeply interested in witch- 
craft, but this has no importance except as show- 
ing that he, like the vast majority of educated men 
of his day, physicians, scholars, divines, and _ scien- 
tists, believed that witches existed, and that it was 
the duty of the historian and the student to investi- 
gate and record their deeds. He wrote several books 
with this in mind, but they form only a tiny part of 
his whole literary production, and this subject was but 
one among the many he discussed in print. Often, 
however, one finds selections from the writings of 
Cotton Mather concerned wholly or in large part with 
his comments on witchcraft, and this has resulted 
in a belief that those comments are especially char- 
acteristic of him as a man and author. One needs 
no more than a glance at a bibliography of his pub- 
lications to see how baseless is such a belief. 

Nor is it true that Cotton Mather’s interest in 
witchcraft was the cause of his declining popularity 
after 1692. He did suffer a loss of prestige in the 
last years of the seventeenth century, but the rea-| 
sons for it were largely political. Later in this Intro- 
duction, in connection with Mather’s “Life of Phips” 
and his Political Fables, there will be occasion to 
speak more fully of his activity in politics from 1688 
to 1692, and all that is necessary at present is a bare 
outline of the case. By 1692 Increase Mather was 
a political force in the colony, an advocate of the 
new royal charter for Massachusetts which became 


INTRODUCTION XVI 


operative in that year, and a trusted adviser of Sir 
William Phips, the new governor. Cotton Mather 
was, of course, allied with his father, and shared 
in his political influence. The new charter, how- 
ever, was not universally popular, nor was Phips, 
and gradually there developed a party in Boston 
the members of which opposed the Mathers’ polit- 
ical position, and inclined also to combat them in 
everything else. Within the church, too, there were 
disputes. Various Congregationalists who favored 
changes in ritual and church discipline gave expres- 
sion to their ideas, and, eventually, set up a new 
meeting-house in which their theories could be put 
into practice. To Cotton Mather and his father 
such innovations were abhorrent, and neither hesi- 
tated to say so. But the combined influence of those 
who opposed them on political grounds and those 
whom they offended in ecclesiastical affairs, was 
too strong for them. By 1701 Increase Mather was 
forced by his enemies to resign the presidency of | 
Harvard College. This did not mean that his wide' 
influence was much impaired, but it demonstrated that 
he could no longer lead as of yore, and that those 
who were hostile to the Mathers were powerful in 
public affairs. For Increase Mather the defeat was not 
serious; for his son it was far more grave. He was 
still a young man, and he had no such career as his 
father’s to look proudly back upon. For one so placed 
to realize suddenly that his policies were not always 
to prevail, was a sore blow. His comments on his 
adversaries and his replies to his critics express all 
too vigorously the depth of his feeling. 

Abundant opportunities to continue his public- 
spirited endeavors in the ministry, and occasional 


XVIil INTRODUCTION 


chances to participate in politics, still remained, and 
there was no slackening of his activity after 1701. 
He schemed to have Joseph Dudley made governor, 
and, once Dudley was in office, and proving himself 
opposed to Mather’s beliefs, he schemed to oust him 
again. He longed to be chosen President of Harvard, 
and was angry when the electors passed him by. No 
doubt this reveals ambition, but there is also no 
doubt that his desire was quite as much to keep the 
college orthodox in religion as to exalt himself. Un- 
successful, he turned to aid the founders of Yale, 
and throughout the early years of this college, worked 
hard to serve its interests. For this he has been 
called a traitor to his own Alma Mater, but it is well 
to remember that he must have believed good educa- 
tion was an ideal worth working for even at the 
expense of his personal affection for Harvard. It 
seemed to him that the new college was in the paths 
of truth and the old was not. Feeling thus he can 
have had no doubts as to which institution he must 
support. He continued to hope that Harvard might 
return to the strict religious principles of its founders, 
but in this, as in so much else, he was doomed to 
disappointment. Even Yale, by 1722, developed 
Episcopalian sentiment. Its rector, Timothy Cutler, 
resigned to join the Anglican church, and there is 
good evidence that Cotton Mather was invited to 
succeed him at New Haven.!' He must have been 
sorely tempted to go. He felt that he had been badly 
treated in Boston, and that in another community 


1 A letter, now in my possession, contains this evidence. I hope 
to publish this letter with some investigation and comment in a 
forthcoming volume of the Publications of the Colonial Society of 
Massachusetts. 


INTRODUCTION XIX 


he might meet recognition of his deserts. But his 
father was old and feeble; his church in Boston 
was devoted to him and he to it, and, however reluc- 
tantly, he gave up the opportunity to preside over 
the destinies of Yale. 

This refusal marks the passing of his last oppor- 
tunity to take a high place in public affairs. His 
ambitions in regard to Harvard were not realized; 
his influence in affairs of state was important only 
so long as his father’s political dominance was main- 
tained. However much one may realize the tragic 
quality of his brave struggle against heavy odds, or 
however much one appreciates the heavy burdens 
of affliction that he bore through many years, it is 
hard to close one’s eyes to his defects, and harder 
still to make his character seem appealing to men 
of to-day. But, whatever his shortcomings, no just 
estimate of him can leave out of account his good 
qualities and what he achieved. His energy and versatil- 
ity were shown in his many humanitarian enterprises, 
in his success as a minister, in his services to Con- 
gregationalism, and in his labors as a man of letters. 
He was no mere creature of vanity, nor did his loy- 
alty to many elements in the past imply hostility 
to the new. One needs only to study his life and 
his writings to discover how steadily he worked for/ 
progressive ideals, and to realize how marked was his/ 
intellectual preéminence among Americans of his time. 

This 1s nowhere better displayed than in his work 
as a student and writer in the field of science. Puri- 
tan New England was not, probably, as indifferent 
to scientific matters or as ignorant of them as some 
historians would have us believe, but it is true that 
few of the colonists before Cotton Mather gave much | 


Sees angel en i nisi icon OE 


XX INTRODUCTION 


thought to such topics. Increase Mather was, indeed, 
an exception to the rule. He bought and read 
scientific books, and more than once he showed a 
surprisingly up-to-date knowledge of the latest dis- 
coveries in English and European laboratories. More-\ 
over, in his Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Prov- 
idences, published in 1684, he used essentially the' 
method of the scientist, and, although the purpose 
of the book was in the main theological, much of 
it deserves to be classified as popular science. In 
1683, Increase Mather had organized in Boston a 
scientific society, comprising a small group of men 
who, like himself, desired to observe natural phenom- 
ena and to discuss the problems they suggested. Cot- 
ton Mather, fresh from college, was present at their 
meetings and seems to have been deeply interested. 
No doubt he read the scientific books in his father’s 
library; probably he inherited his father’s taste for the 
subjects with which they dealt. Certainly in many 
of his writings one finds much scientific information, 
and a definite leaning toward scientific themes. 

It is in his later books that this is most evident, 
and the most important developments of his scien-, 
tific bent appear in the last twenty years of his life. 
His labors did not go unnoticed. Dr. John Wood- 
ward of London, an eminent geologist, and physician, 
wrote to him, asking him for fossils, or any informa- 
tion he had acquired about them. This in itself testifies 
to the fact that Mather was known by reputation 
in England, and makes clear that he was not famous 
merely as a theologian. In answering Woodward 
he remarked that his “Infant Countrey”’ was “entirely 
destitute of Philosophers.” He did much to dis- 
prove his own statement, however, for his letters 


INTRODUCTION XX1 


to his London correspondent were welcomed, and 
the Royal Society, through its Secretary, urged him 
to send over more of his “‘observations on Natural 
subjects.”’ Four days later, there was held a meet- 
ing of the Council of the Society, and in the minutes 
one reads: “Mr. Cotton Mather was proposed, bal- 
loted for, and approved to be a Member of the Soci- 
ety.’ His election could not be final until it had 
been voted by the Society as a whole, but, early in 
1714, he received word that this had been done.! 
Thus his attainments were recognized by the one 
learned scientific society of the English-speaking 
world. No New England divine had achieved such 
a distinction before, and, indeed, Mather was one 
of the very few Americans elected by the Royal Soci- 
ety prior to 1750. No one of these few communicated 
as much to the Society as he. 

His letters on scientific subjects, and the books 
in which similar matters are discussed, are too numer- 
ous to mention in detail. Nor is there space to con- 
sider all of the ways in which his “philosophical” 
tastes manifested themselves. No account of him, 
however, can be complete without some notice of 
his courageous advocacy of inoculation against small- 
pox. Making his views on this subject known in 
1721, he was promptly denounced as a “credulous” 
and “superstitious” champion of error. His _ en- 


1The action of the Society, so far as its records are concerned, 
was not taken actually until April 11, 1723, but the delay seems 
to.have been caused by some blunder. To all intents and purposes 
Mather became a member in 1713, and he was so regarded by his 
fellow members. For the whole story, see G. L. Kittredge, ‘Cotton 
Mather’s Election into the Royal Society,” in Publications of the 
Colonial Society of Massachusetts, xiv, 81-114. From this article are 
taken the quotations in the text above. 


Snes 


XXIl INTRODUCTION 


lightenment was greater than the people’s, greater 
even than that of most of the physicians, and there- 
fore he was reviled. On one occasion, he tells us, 
a bomb was thrown through the window of his house, 
with a note reading: ‘“‘Cotton Mather, you Dog; 
Dam you: I’! enoculate you with this, with a pox 
to you.” But he could not be intimidated, and, sup- 
ported by his fellow divines, he continued to write 
in favor of what he held to be a distinct advance 
in medicine. Nor was his belief in inoculation the 
result of a hasty infatuation with a new theory. He 
had read and studied the subject for years before 
1721, and when he stood forth to combat the argu- 
ments of his opponents, he spoke from a thorough 
knowledge of the scientific problems involved. Had 
he revealed his intellectual eminence in no other 
way, his course in this affair would be enough to 
prove him to have been a man unusual in his eral 
both for his learning and for his bravery in uphold- 
ing the cause of progress against those to whose igno- 
rance he appeared little better than a fool. 

It has been said that in New England, for a full 
century after 1647, “the great importance attached 
to theology made real progress impossible. The 
period was sterile—glacial,’’ and that, in this same 
period, the ascendancy of the clergy was undisputed, 
so that, for the community, “under the supreme 
tule of orthodoxy the result was not only benumbing 
and provincial, but produced a morbid general con- 
dition.” 1 If this be true, it is the more surprising 
to find Cotton Mather, a divine, deep in the study 
of current science. It is startling to find that, far 


1 For the quoted passages, see W. C. Ford, “‘Preface” in The Diary 
of Cotton Mather, vol. 1, p. xvii. 


INTRODUCTION XXill 


from being benumbed by his environment, he sought 
to relieve its sterility, by bringing to it news of the 
advanced thought of the outside world. Certainly 
he was not “provincial,” unless one means that he 
never traveled far from Boston. To be awarded 
an honorary degree from a Scottish university, to 
maintain a correspondence with scholars, scientists, 
and theologians in “England, Scotland, Ireland, Hol- 
land, Germany, and even the Eastern as well as 
Western Indies,’! and to achieve celebrity for learn- 
ing far beyond the boundaries of his own land— 
these things are not what we expect from a “‘provin- 
cial” person. Nor can we suppose that the Royal 
Society of London chose Mather to membership 
without realizing what we are apt to ignore—that 
this New England divine was in matters of scholar- 
ship truly a “citizen of the world.” 

Perhaps it is most important to appreciate, after this 
hasty glimpse at his career, that he was in many ways, 
as Mr. Robbins called him, a riddle to himself as well 


as to us.” His life and character are nowhere more 


striking than in their contrasts. Conservative in his | 


attitude toward Congregational orthodoxy, he 1s none 
the less marked by his tolerance toward other sects. 





In his relation to Harvard and Yale he seems to be more 
wedded to the ideas of the past than to the chang- 
ing demands of anew day. Yet in much of his writing 
he was not only abreast of his contemporaries but 
almost alone in his enthusiastic reception of new 
ideas. If he was more interested in New England 
and in Boston than in any other spot on the globe, 


1Thomas Prince, quoted in J. L. Sibley, Biographical Sketches, 
The 298 


2 Quoted in J. L. Sibley, op. cit., i, 36. 


XXIV INTRODUCTION 


he still found time to support a religious movement 
in Bavaria, and he wrote books which had wide 
and continued circulation far beyond the confines 
of the New World. At times he was given to those 
transports of religious feeling which have seemed 
to some to be evidence of an unsound mental constitu- 
tion, but he was still able on occasion to be highly 
practical and to speak the right word at the nght 
time. If he was a hot-headed visionary, or a fanatic, 
his sermons and “books were often both timely and 
constructively sane. If his character has its repellent 
side, if even his personal conduct has been attacked 
by rumor, in his own day he did not lack for friends. 
Benjamin Colman, more than once an opponent of 
Mather, said of him: “It was Conversation and Ac- 
quaintance with him, in his familiar and occasional 
Discourses and private Communications, that dis-. 
covered the vast compass of his Knowledge and the 
Projections of his Piety; . . . . Here he excell’d; here 
he shone; being exceeding communicative, and bringing 
out of his Treasury things new and old, without meas- 
ure. Here it was seen how his Wit, and Fancy, his 
Invention, his Quickness of thought, and ready Appre- 
hension were all consecrated to God, as well as his 
Heart, Will and Affections; and out of his Abun- 
dance ... . overflow’d, dropt as the honey-comb, fed 
all that came near him, and were as the choice silver, 
for richness and brightness, pleasure and profit.” } 
Colman did not deny Mather’s faults, but he knew 
that with the faults went virtues. To-day one still 
finds Cotton Mather denounced as the persecutor 
of witches, the colossal pedant, the epitome of the 


1B. Colman, The Holy Walk and Glorious Translation, etc. (Bos- 
ton, 1728), 23-24. 


INTRODUCTION XXV 


narrowness and bigotry of the Puritan, or, less often, 
defended as a walking type of righteousness, eulogized 
to the point of lifelessness and unreality. Neither 
view does him justice. Neither view lets the real 
fascination of his character appear. He was human 
in his shortcomings, deservedly famous for his good 
works, and to know him well is to understand a man 
whose nature abounds in bafHling inconsistencies, 
and who is the more interesting because he defies 
reduction to the limits of a type. He is no pale histor- 
ical abstraction, but an intensely active individual. 
He would be far less interesting if he were not so de- 
cidedly a complex creation of flesh and blood. 


II 
The Scholar and the Man of Letters 


What is true of Mather’s activity in the field of 
science applies also to his industry and attainments 
in other subjects. To comprehend why he was accepted 
as a scholar, it is necessary to read no further than 
the testimony of his contemporaries. Thomas Prince, 
himself a scholar and ‘“‘the father of American bib- 
liography,” calls him ‘‘a Person of a wonderful quick 
Apprehension, tenacious Memory, lively Fancy, ready 
Invention, unwearied Industry: of vast Improve- 
ments in Knowledge,” and adds: “He was a wonder- 
full Improver of Time: and ’tis almost amazing how 
much He had read & studied—How much He has 
wrote and published—How much He corresponded 
abroad .... How many languages, Histories, Arts 
and Sciences, both ancient and modern He was famil- 
iarly vers’d in—What a vast Amassment of Learn- 
ing He had grasp’d in his Mind, from all sorts of 


XXVI1 INTRODUCTION 


Writings . . . . His printed Writings so full of Piety 
and various Erudition, his vast Correspondence, 
and the continual Reports of Travellers who had 
conversed with Him, had spread his Reputation 
into other Countries: And when about Fourteen 
Years ago I travelled abroad, I cou’d not but admire 
to what Extent his Fame had reached.” ! 

An unusual memory, and an unusual capacity 
for rapid reading, together with the ability to apply 
what he read, seem to have been among his most 
useful assets. Over the door of his study, “‘a large, 
yett a warm chamber, (the hangings whereof are 
boxes with . . . . Books in them,’’? he had inscribed 
“Be Short.”? It was there that Benjamin Franklin, 
then a boy of eighteen, visited him and was impressed; 
it was there that his privileged friends sought him 
out. In spite of the warning legend above his door, 
when they penetrated to his library, they found 
him neither jealous of his time nor miserly in his dis- 
course. “‘He would always entertain us with Ease & 
Pleasure, even in his Studying Hours, as long as we 
pleas’d or cou’d venture to hinder Him,” says Prince, 
and he adds that Mather made use “of the most 
unseasonable Visitants, both to do more Good, and 
at the same time even advance Himself in learning; 
by the most artful Repetition of the more agreable 
Passages He had lately been reading, with his own 
Remarks or Improvements upon them; whereby 
He further digested them, and more perfectly made 
them his own.”? ‘The same writer gives us other 


1T, Prince, The Departure of Elijah Lamented (Boston, 1728), 
19, 20; and Preface to Samuel Mather’s Life of Cotton Mather 
(Boston, 1729), I 

2 Diary of Cotton Mather, 1, 447. °T. Prince, Departure, 20, 21. 


INTRODUCTION XX VII 


details as to Mather’s method of work, saying “He 
cared not to trouble himself with any” books “but 
those that were likely to bring him something New, 
and so increase his Knowledge. In two or three 
Minutes turning thro’ a Volumn, he cou’d easily 
tell whether it wou’d make Additions to the Store 
of his Ideas. If it cou’d not, He quickly laid it by: 
If otherwise, he read it. . perusing those Parts 
only that represented pereeching Novel, which he 
Pencil’d as he went along, and at the End reduc’d 
the Substance to his Common Places, to be review’d 
at Leisure; and all this with wonderful Celerity . . 

As he increased in Years, the less Time he had occa- 
sion to expend in running thro’ an Author; till at 
length there were but few Books published that 
would take him much to read.””? 

Cotton Mather was no mere bookworm, but one 
who impressed his visitors as ‘‘instructive, learned, 
pious and engaging .... in his private Converse— 
superior company for the greatest of Men” and 
“agreably temper’d with a various mixture of Wit 
and Chearfulness.”” Thus he easily aroused admira- 
tion for “the capacity of his mind; the readiness of 
his wit, the vastness of his reading; the strength 
of his memory ... . the constant tenor of a most 
entertaining and profitable conversation.” 

If Lord Chancellor King, protégé of John Locke 
and friend of Sir Isaac Newton, William Whiston, 
divine, philosopher, and savant, John Desaguliers, 
scientist and inventor and recipient of the Copley gold 
medal of the Royal Society, Sir Richard Blackmore, 


1T. Prince, Preface in Samuel Mather’s Life of Cotton Mather, 3, 4. 
2T. Prince, Departure, 21; Joshua Gee, Israel’s Mourning (Bos- 
ton, 1728), 18. 


XXVIIl INTRODUCTION 


a physician and poet, Dr. Woodward, and other Eng- 
lishmen distinguished in the intellectual world all 
took time to write to Mather, it was not because they 
were obtuse, but because he was a scholar. So August 
Hermann Francke, in Germany, found him worthy 
of respect. His high standing in the learned world 
of his day cannot be denied. 

His library was famous for its size. We have no 
complete catalogue of it, but from what we know 
of his father’s collection, half of which he inherited, 
and from those volumes of his own which are still 
preserved, we can be sure that John Dunton did 
not exaggerate in calling “Mr. Mather’s library 

. the Glory of New-England, if not of all Amer- 
ica.” 4 By 1700 Cotton Mather estimated that he had 
between two and three thousand books, and we know 
that the number grew larger every year. 

Charles Chauncy remarked that “there were scarcely 
any books written but”? Mather “had somehow or 
other got the sight of them.” 2 Of course Mather 
read, for the most part, theology; he owned more 
books of this type than of any other. At the same 
time he did not neglect the classics, and his knowl- 
edge of these would put to shame most “well-read” 
men of the present. He was well acquainted with 
the great histories of all ages, and if he unjustly dubbed 
Clarendon’s work a “Romance that goes under the 
Title of, The History of the Grand Rebellion” and 
said it should be treated ‘‘with the Disregard that 
is proper for it,”’® he did read not only the histories 
of antiquity but also those which in his era passed 


1J. Dunton, Letters from New-England (1867), 75. 
2 Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, xxxvit, 70. 


$C, Mather, Manuductio ad Ministerium (Boston, 1726), 63. 


INTRODUCTION XXIX 


as current books. Nor did he overlook lighter forms 
of literature. As he saw it, a scholar need not and 
should not be “‘an Odd, Starv’d, Lank sort of a thing, 
who had lived only on Hebrew Roots all his Days,”! 
but one who could, if more serious concerns allowed, 
enjoy music and poetry. In his Manuductio ad Min- 
isterium he advises young men who would become 
scholarly divines concerning the books they should 
read and the studies they should pursue. He reveals 
a surprising catholicity of taste. He extols science 
and experimental philosophy. He recommends a 
knowledge of French. “I cannot wish you a Soul 
that shall be wholly Unpoetical,” ? he declares. Al- 
though, in the Manuductio, he devotes most of his 
praise of poetry to Homer and Virgil, we know that 
he read Paradise Lost, that Chaucer was something 
more than a name to him, and we even find him quot- 
ing Nahum Tate and lauding Blackmore to the skies. 
As for the “stage-plays’”? which Mather held to be 
unworthy of a scholar’s attention, neither the drama 
of the Restoration nor that of the early eighteenth 
century is so obvious in its merits as to make it possible 
to accuse Mather of narrowness simply because he 
regarded the plays in question as less important for a 
man of learning than such books as those of Sir Thomas 
Browne, John Milton, and Thomas Fuller. In his 
reading, as in his life, no undue reverence for the past 
kept him from appreciation of the present. ‘‘Seldome 
any new Book of Consequence finds the way from 
beyond-Sea, to these parts of America, but I bestow 
the Perusal upon it,’ he says. There is much illu- 
1 Idem, 30. 


2 Idem, 39. 
® Diary of Cotton Mather, 1, 548, 


XXX INTRODUCTION 


mination in Mather’s note to Thomas Prince in 1718, 
“Favour me, by this Bearer, with the Book of Poetry, 
you bought the last week at your Booksellers.” 1 
To-day we can easily find flaws in Mather’s schol- 
arship. He attempted to cover too large a field of 
knowledge, and many of his errors might have been 
avoided had he been content to limit the range of 
his studies. His methods are faulty. He accepted 
quotations and citations which he found in the authors 
he read, and used them himself without tracing 
them back to their sources. If he had a letter from 
a man whom he believed to be honest and wise, he 
was not apt to attempt verification. But, in general, 
his failure to measure up to present standards is 
due to the fact that our methods are not those of 
1690 or 1720. We have resources which he had not, 
great libraries, and the accumulated experience of 
innumerable students. If to the Royal Society he 
seemed learned and scholarly, it is hardly fair to 
criticize him as “‘credulous” or ‘‘uncritical” simply 
because he did not know certain facts still unrevealed 
in his time. No other American of his generation 
could say with him: “I am able with little study 
to write in seven languages. I feast myself with 
the sweets of all sciences which the more polite part 
of mankind ordinarily pretend to. I am entertained 
with all kinds of histories, ancient and modern. I 
am no stranger to the curiosities which, by all sorts 
of learning, are brought to the curious. ‘These in- 
tellectual pleasures are far beyond any sensual ones.’”? 
Out of Mather’s reading came his writing. His 


1 Quoted in American Antiquarian Soctety Proceedings, xx, 295. 


2 Quoted in H. E. Mather, Lineage of Rev. Richard Mather (Hart- 
ford, 1890), 81, 82. 


INTRODUCTION XXXI 


‘Common Places,” his book of ‘‘Quotidiana” in which 
he jotted down good things which he discovered 
in other authors, he drew upon constantly as he 
wrote. To some critics, therefore, he has presented 
himself rather as an editor than as an author. But he 
did write countless sermons, tracts, and records of his 
own observations, in which the matter as well as the 
manner is his own. He wrote with a scholar’s point of 
view—with a desire to make full use of his sources 
—but even when this tendency is most marked he 
still proves himself not only a man of letters but 
in some measure an artist in his care for phrasing, 
for the ways in which his stories were told and his 
arguments developed, and for that element in writ- 
ing which he called, as we should, “‘style.”’ 

Mather wrote in many forms. History, biography, 
essays of a rudimentary sort, sermons, fables, books 
of practical piety, and theological treatises are all 
to be found among his works, and he tried his hand 
at verse. The Christian Philosopher shows him dab- 
bling in philosophy and science; his Angel of Bethesda 
is a medical manual, while his Biblia Americana 
ts a great compilation of material designed to illus- 
trate and interpret the Bible. The Psaltertum Amer- 
icanum is an entertaining experiment in translating 
the Psalms and in adapting them for musical ren- 
dering. Nor does this list by any means exhaust 
all the various categories into which his writings fall. 

His sermons outnumber any other class of his printed 
works, chiefly because he was a divine and because the 
notes for a pulpit discourse could easily be expanded 
into a small book. These sermons are often interest- 
ing, but less so than his other work. ‘They adhere 
rigidly to the somewhat mechanical form in vogue 


XXXIl INTRODUCTION 


among most Puritan preachers of the period, and 
to us they seem overloaded with scriptural refer- 
ences and marred by a dogmatic manner. At the 
same time they are often admirably “practical” 
in their application of doctrine to life, and often 
splendidly emphatic in their exhortation. They 
should be read aloud; for their effectiveness was 
heightened by the timeliness of their subjects and 
by the dominant presence of the preacher. 

Mather’s discussions of purely theological topics have 
little interest except for special students. His sci- 
entific writing is exemplified in The Christian Philos- 
opher, and, better still, in his communications to 
the Royal Society, in the Angel of Bethesda, and in 
parts of the Biblia Americana. These communica- 
tions and the two last-named works have never been 
published completely—a fact which explains our 
forgetfulness concerning Mather the scientist. His 
scientific works reveal him perhaps better than his 
other productions as an expert manipulator of English 
prose. What seems to be an essay from his pen is 
found in what he calls his “digression” on style in 
the Manuductio.!. His dexterity in the fable is shown 
in the Political Fables printed in this volume, and 
his verse is fairly represented by his elegy on Phips, 
also contained in these pages. The essay holds its 
own with many an English critical essay of Mather’s 
time, even though it presents no startling excellence; 
the verse, though not “modern,” is often technically 
deft, and, compared with similar poetry produced 
in England and her colonies in and before 1697, is 
creditable. Any one who looks through the pages of 
Quarles, Sylvester, Wither, Cowley—even Dryden at 


1 See quotation, pages xxxvi-xxxvii, below. 


INTRODUCTION XXXIll 


his least felicitous—will discover who were Mather’s 
masters in verse and also that he sometimes wrote 
quite as well as did those masters on certain occasions. 
In poetry, as in some elements of his prose, Mather 
adopts a manner which was, by 1700, largely obsolete, 
but in that manner, he is skillful. However valid 
our later ideals for poetry may be, they are not fair 
criteria by which to judge a man who wrote his verse 
with reference to a definition of “‘fancy” and “wit” 
which is not acceptable to us. 

As for “‘practical piety,” two of Mather’s books 
of this type show merit. The Manuductio, already 
referred to, is an exercise in unvarnished prose, and in 
respect to content is informed by an eminently sane un- 
derstanding of the ideal of scholarship as it was under- 
stood when the book was written. Even Mr. Tyler, 
elsewhere so impressed by Mather’s pedantry, finds 
this little volume one which is “written heartily, 
with real enthusiasm for the subject and with greater 
directness and simplicity of style than the author 
has shown in any other work.”! Mather’s Bon- 
facius, better known as Essays to Do Good, has the 
same good qualities and evokes from the same critic the 
comment that it is “quite remarkable for the clear 
ingenuity and the fascinating power with which it 
reduces charity to an exact science, and plans the 
systematic transaction of good deeds on business 
principles.”? This is true. It is no less true that 
the prose is sound, the emphasis expertly maintained, 
while many passages are saved from dullness by an 
epigrammatic touch, revealing at once the writer's 
wit and his ready command of the technique of prose. 


1M. C. Tyler, History of American Literature, u, 85. 
2 Idem., 84. 


XXXIV INTRODUCTION 


In biography, Mather wrote much. His son says, 
“by the Year 1718 the Doctor had published the 
lives of no less than one hundred and fourteen Men, 
and more than twenty Women, and since that Year, 
he has printed Accounts and Characters of many 
more.”! No one will deny that these “Lives” often fall 
far short of our ideal for biography. They are all 
eulogistic, less concerned with the complete revela- 
tion of character than with the glorification of good 
deeds. Nevertheless, Mather loved anecdotes, and 
with them he lightened his pages. He gained vivid- 
ness by directly quoted remarks, and where a straight- 
forward narrative was called for he showed that he 
knew what a good story was and how it should be 
told. If Phips, or the earlier governors of Massa- 
chusetts, as portrayed in the Magnalia, or Increase 
Mather as depicted in his son’s Parentator, lack some 
of the reality of life because they are too favorably 
displayed, it is still true that neither the Parentator 
nor the “Life of Phips,” for example, need fear com- 
parison with English work of the same type in the 
same period or earlier. And, as Barrett Wendell pointed 
out, the defects in Mather’s biographies cannot pre- 
vent a careful reader “from recognizing the marked 
individuality of his separate portraits.” 2 

The line between such works as the lives of the 
governors and historical writing in the strict sense, 
is hard to draw. There is likewise a great deal that 
may most safely be called history in Mather’s books 
of “‘remarkable providences” or those on witchcraft. 
A “remarkable providence” was an event in which 
it seemed that God directly revealed His power on 


1S. Mather, op. cit., 70. 
2B. Wendell, Cotton Mather, 161. 


INTRODUCTION XXXV 


earth. Shipwrecks, deliverances from perils, great 
storms, calamities, and many other happenings of 
life were commonly regarded as such signs of God’s 
power. ‘Their significance was particularly urged by 
the Puritans, but a belief in them persisted among 
Christians of all sects well into the eighteenth cen- 
tury. To record such events had edificatory value, 
by turning men from their godless ways. At the 
same time, when one wrote of happenings actually 
observed by credible witnesses, one wrote what was, 
after all, history. So too, the events in question 
often presented scientific interest, and to collect 
records of them, based on observation, was to follow 
the method of the scientist. For a historian to leave 
untold, or a scientist to dismiss without investigation, 
the actions of the Devil’s agents and their victims, 
would be quite as remiss as for a divine to fail to 
draw from the experiences of the “afflicted” and their 
diabolical tormentors a warning against Satan and 
his wiles. A little group of Mather’s books, then, 
such as his Memorable Providences and Wonders of the 
Invisible World, should be classified as in part history, 
in part science, and in part works of admonition and 
edification. 

As a historian pure and simple, Mather left merely 
fragments. The Magnalia sufficiently illustrates his 
deficiencies, but it is also true that Mather’s theory 
of history was by no means wholly antiquated when 
he wrote, however misguided it seems to-day. Though 
not an accurate historian, he was not responsible for 
all the errors in his books. Nor should it be forgotten 
that some of his divagations are explained by the fact 
that our manifold historical resources were not his. 

It would be stupid, of course, to deny that as a 


XXXVI INTRODUCTION 


writer he had grave faults. The minor accusations 
brought against him need not detain us. More se- 
rious and more fundamental are the charges that 
his style was above all pedantic, and that he was 
too much a disciple of the “fantastic school”’ of prose. 

As to the latter point, it is true that Mather’s 
style is often overloaded with strained metaphors, 
forced similes, and mannerisms familiar in much 
English prose and verse for generations before 1700. 
It is not true that his style was always thus fantas- 
tic. He could write without conceits or what one 
of his critics in his own day called “‘puns and jingles,” 
and the selections in this volume show many pages 
of the most direct phrasing. ,He knew well in what 
passages he had nothing to lose and everything to 
gain by avoiding artificialities of prose. That he 
was “fantastic” at times is due undoubtedly to the 
influence of earlier English writers, together with 
his own tendency to think always in terms of anal- 
ogies and images. Undoubtedly, also, ‘‘fantastic” 
prose was largely outlawed in England after 1700. 
Therefore we are prone to think of it as something 
inherently bad. Perhaps it was, but it remains true 
that not all of Cotton Mather’s writing is bad and 
that on occasion his “fancy” and the ‘‘ornaments” 
of his prose are ingeniously employed. 

The second charge against his writing is that of 
pedantry. In this connection it is perhaps just to 
hear Mather in his own defense: 


“There has been a deal of ado about a STYLE; So much, that 
I must offer you my Sentiments upon it. There is a Way of Writ- 
ing, wherein the Author endeavours, that the Reader may have 
something to the Purpose in every Paragraph. There is not only a 
Vigour sensible in every Sentence, but the Paragraph is embellished 


INTRODUCTION XXXVI 


with Profitable References, even to something beyond what is di- 
rectly spoken. Formal and Painful Quotations are not studied; 
yet all that could be learnt from them is insinuated. The Writer 
pretends not unto Reading, yet he could not have writ as he does 
if he had not Read very much in his Time; and his Composures 
are not only a Cloth of Gold, but also stuck with as many Jewels, 
as the Gown of a Russian Embassador. This Way of Writing has 
been decried by many, and is at this Day more than ever so, for 
the same Reason, that in the old Story, the Grapes were decried, 
That they were not Ripe. .... But, however Fashion and Humour 
may prevail, they must not think that the Club at their Coffee- 
House is, All the World; but there will always be those, who... . 
will think, that the real Excellency of a Book will never ly in saying 
of little; That the less one has for his Money in a Book, ’tis really 
the more Valuable for it; and that the less one is instructed in a 
Book, and the more of Superfluous Margin, and Superficial Har- 
angue, and the less of Substantial Matter one has in it, the more 
tis to be accounted of. .... Nothing appears to me more Imperti- 
nent and Ridiculous than the Modern Way, [I cannot say, Rule; 
For they have None!] of Criticising. The Blades that set up for 
Criticks, I know not who constituted or commission’d ’em!—they 
appear to me, for the most part as Contemptible, as they are a Super- 
cilious Generation. For indeed no Two of them have the same 
Style; and they are as intollerably Cross-grain’d and severe in their 
Censures upon one another, as they are upon the rest of Mankind. 
But while each of them, Conceitedly enough, sets up for the Stand- 
ard of Perfection, we are entirely at a loss which Fire to follow. 
Nor can you easily find any one thing wherein they agree for their 
Style, except perhaps a perpetual care to give us Jejune and Empty 
Pages, without such Touches of Erudition.... as may make 
the Discourses less Tedious, and more Enriching, to the Mind of 
him that peruses them. .... After all, Every Man will have his 
own Style, which will distinguish him as much as his Gate:!_ And if you 
can attain to that which I have newly described, but always writ- 
ing so as to give an Easy Conveyance unto your Idea’s, 1 would 
not have you by any Scourging be driven out of your Gate.” 


Mather, then, considered the chief function of good 
writing to be instruction. For him a good style 


LJ.e., Gait. 
2C. Mather, Manuductio, 44-46. 


XXXVI INTRODUCTION 


was one that conveyed ideas easily and emphati- 
cally, and the more information that was conveyed, 
the better the style. Moreover, he believed that 
style was an individual matter, and that a man 
should write as he thought. Thus he was “‘not driven 
out of his gait.” He thought of his prose as a cloth 
of gold. So, no doubt, did the critics whom he de- 
nounced, think of theirs. But for him the golden 
threads and the jewels of style were the references 
and allusions which we call pedantic; while the critics 
wove their cloth of gold from simple English, adorned 
only with the jewels of graceful and urbane ex- 
pression. The fundamental difference concerns the 
emphasis to be put upon style as opposed to con- 
tent. We are not called upon to take Mather’s view 
of the case, but we should recall that he wrote as 
he did because he knew his own “‘gait.”’ He had courage 
to follow his own convictions in the face of the pre- 
vailing mode. His “pedantry’? was no more uni- 
versal in his writing than his “fantastic” prose. 
He could, when he wished, write as directly as Addi- 
son or Swift. The Political Fables prove this; so 
does that letter quoted by Barrett Wendell as show- 
ing that Mather might after all “have been no bad 
contributor to the ‘Spectator’: he was not insen- 
sible to the literary style of the new century.””! 
Whoever reads merely the selections from Cotton 
Mather in this volume, must feel’ that, in spite of his 
display of erudition, in spite of his “‘puns and jingles,” 
there is a sure sense of prose rhythm, an ear for good 
phrasing, and a mastery of the means by which strength 
is woven into English prose. It is, I think, signif- 
icant that Professor Kittredge and Professor Wen- 
1B. Wendell, op. cit., 250. 


INTRODUCTION XX XIX 


dell, the two literary scholars who have studied 
Mather’s works most thoroughly, both have found 
good qualities in his style. The latter, writing of 
the Magnalia, said: ‘The style, in the first place, 
seems to me remarkably good... . [Mather] has 
two merits peculiarly his own: in the whole book 
I have not found a line that is not perfectly lucid, 
nor many paragraphs that, considering the frequent 
dulness of his subject, I could honestly call tiresome. 
In thé second place... . I am inclined to think 
the veracity of spirit that pervades the book of very 
high order. Somehow, as no one else can, Cotton 
Mather makes you by and by feel what the Puritan 
ideal was: if he does not tell just what men were, 
he does tell just what they wanted to be, and what 
loyal posterity longed to believe them. ... I have 
known the book for eleven years; and the better I 
know it, the more I value it. Whatever else Cotton 
Mather may have been, the ‘Magnalia’ alone, I 
think, proves him to have been a notable man of 
letters.” ? 

Through his books one derives a knowledge of 
the spirit of his times, which can be secured in no 
other way. Benjamin Franklin was influenced through- 
out his life by one of Mather’s books. Emerson was 
no stranger to them. Harrier Beecher Stowe in her 
girlhood delighted in the stories she found in the 
Magnalia; Lowell found much to read, if little to 
praise, in Mather’s pages. Hawthorne, Longfellow, 
and Whittier pored over his histories of old New Eng- 
land. Even to-day we in America cannot wisely 
leave Cotton Mather quite unread. 

Nor need one be interested only in national litera- 

1 Idem, 161, 162. 


xl INTRODUCTION 


ture to fall under the spell of Mather. Charles Lamb 
rejoiced in reading Thomas Fuller; Dr. Johnson 
rose early to read Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, 
though he declared he would leave his bed for no 
other book. Mather is less witty than Fuller, per- 
haps less fascinating in his erudition than Richard 
Burton, but he will not lack for an audience so 
long as there are men like Lamb and Johnson who 
relish good writing, so long as there are readers fond 
of the romance so richly harvested in the “‘Magnalia.” 
To them his pages offer entertainment; and, however 
rarely, flashes of wit, gleams of inspiration—a breath 
of the spirit that gives to every good book its right to 
enduring life. 


Il 
The Magnalia Christs Americana 


Cotton Mather’s Magnalia is his most celebrated 
book. In 1702, when it was published in London, 
nothing else in print furnished a complete history of 
New England. Oldmixon and Neal, historians who 
took exception to its faults, were obliged to draw 
much of their material relating to Massachusetts 
and the neighboring colonies from its pages. To- 
day, when many more of the early narratives have 
been published, it offers illumination on many points. 

The book betrays Cotton Mather’s deficiencies 
as a writer of history. There are seven books, the 
first on the settlement of New England, the second 
on the lives of the governors, the third devoted to 
the biographies of ministers, the fourth telling the 
story of Harvard College and sketching the lives 
of some of its graduates, the fifth on the history of 


INTRODUCTION xli 


the Congregational church in the colonies, the sixth 
on ‘“‘remarkable providences,’ and the seventh on 
various disturbances in the churches, The Mag- 
nalia is rather a ‘“‘historical collection” than a his- 
tory. It reprinted many of Cotton Mather’s books 
—sermons, biographies, historical narratives—what- 
ever could be worked into the general scheme. The 
whole thus conveys an impression of formlessness, 
and there is justice in Whittier’s speaking of its “strange 
and marvellous things, heaped up huge and undi- 
gested.”” At the same time it reveals Mather’s skill 
in biography, it abounds in good narrative, and 
the individual books often have the unity which is 
lacking in the work as a whole. It should be remem- 
bered, too, that the book was designed as an “‘Eccle- 
siastical History,’’ and that it was written to exalt 
the cause of godliness and to celebrate the triumphs 
of Christ in the New World. This explains many 
of its inclusions and omissions, and is a key to its 
historical point of view. 

Its inaccuracy has been overemphasized. There 
are many errors of fact in its pages, there are slips 
in names and dates, and sometimes, it seems to 
us, misinterpretations of characters and events. These 
misinterpretations are probably due in many in- 
stances to Mather’s proximity to the things under 
discussion, as well as to his desire to glorify mghteous- 
ness. As to his other lapses, many are caused by 
carelessness, while a few come from untrustworthy 
sources, used because no others were available.  Fi- 
nally, the text of the Magnalia, as we have it, almost 
certainly does not represent the work precisely as 
he wrote it. The manuscript was sent to London 
in 1700; the book did not appear until 1702. A letter 


xii INTRODUCTION 


from John Quick, a London minister, and friend of 
Mather, written March 19, 1702, tells of the difficul- 
ties Quick had, as Mather’s agent, with the publishers. 
Among the terms which Quick proposed to the printer 
were “Every sheet to be brought to Me hot from 
ye Presse to be revised & corrected . . . . Not one 
to be Sold off till all ye Books were first delivered 
to me,” but he adds, ‘‘all these fair designes, hopes, 
& endeavors of mine for you are now vanished into 
smoak.” In other words, his terms were refused, 
and the sheets were not corrected. He says, “And 
how to remedy any other miscarriages about ye 
Impression I am utterly at a losse.”’! 

Neither Mather nor his agent, then, had a chance 
to read the proofs, or to rectify any misprints, while 
the Magnalia was in press. After it was completed, 
two pages of “‘Errata’’ were printed. Most of the 
copies of the Magnalia now extant, do not contain 
these pages, which makes it seem probable that 
many of the volumes sold were sent out without 
them. The result of the scarcity of complete copies 
has been that Mather’s text has often been quoted 
without regard to the corrections made in the “Er- 
rata.”’ Mather has thus been blamed for inaccuracies 
for which the printer was responsible. ‘here are many 
mistakes not rectified in the printed corrections, 
but in respect to them, also, Mather is entitled to 
the benefit of the doubt. If Quick compiled the 
“Errata,” Mather had nothing to do with them; 
if he compiled them himself he can have had no time 
to read over his work carefully enough to detect 
every slip, since the volume was ready for sale— 


1 Quick’s letter is in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society. 


INTRODUCTION xliti 


was, indeed, probably already on sale in England. 
Thus to pass judgment on Mather’s accuracy from 
the evidence of the printed text of the Magnalia 
is distinctly unfair. 

The General Introduction is important because 
of its value as a piece of criticism, expressing Mather’s 
views on the writing of history, and his conception 
of the purpose of the Magnalia. It is worth reading 
also because of its enthusiastic expression of Mather’s 
ideal for his book. His paraphrase of the beginning 
of the £neid in his first sentences, and his dedication 
of his work to the service of Christ, show how intensely 
he felt that he was writing a true epic and how passion- 
ately he longed to serve both the cause of literature 
and that of religion. The Second Book has more unity 
than some of the main divisions of the Magnalia, 
and it displays Mather the historian and biographer 
at his best. Detailed comment on it is not neces- 
sary, save for one or two points of interest. 

The ‘Life of Bradford”? shows two misprints at 
least, Ansterfield, for Austerfield and Grmsly for 
Grimsby. The former for some time baffled seekers 
for Bradford’s birthplace, who failed to recognize 
in the form as printed the true name of the village. 
It is worth noting that, although neither of these 
errors is corrected in the “Errata,” both are almost 
certainly printer’s mistakes. To read “‘n” for “u,” 
and “‘ly” for “by,” still is a common error. Here 
is corroboration for the idea that not all of the in- 
accuracies in the Magnalia are fairly to be ascribed 
to its author. 

The various lists of colonial officers printed in 
Book II show omissions and errors in names and 
dates. The omissions are doubtless to be accounted 


xliv INTRODUCTION 


for by Mather’s carelessness, for it must have been 
possible for him to secure complete lists; the errors 
in names and dates may quite as well represent mere 
misprints as slips on the part of the author. 

The ‘Life of Dudley” was, as Mather said, an 
abridgment of a biography which he had written 
previously. Such a biography, written by him, 
has since been printed.!_ Comparison of it with the 
Magnalia version shows few significant differences, 
except that the statement of Dudley’s dissent from 
the English church is more mildly expressed in the 
latter. It may be that Mather changed the phrasing 
himself, lest he offend his Anglican friends. There 
is, however, another possibility, for we know that 
the Magnalia biography of Dudley was, before it 
was printed, submitted to Joseph Dudley, who was, 
when the book appeared, Governor of New England. 
Quick writes ‘‘Governor Dudley desired that he 
might read over... . (wch he did in my Library) 
his ffather’s Life, & altered one or two words, wch as 
as I remember were these; ‘not a servant but Uncle 
or Guardian to ye Earle of Lincolne.’ He approved 
of ye performance.” ? Joseph Dudley was no hater 
of the English church, and he may well-have modi- 
fied the statement of his father’s nonconformity, as 
well as the passage noted by Quick. In any case, 
he found no other fault with Mather’s biography, 
either as to facts or as to the presentation of them. 

The “Life of Phips” deserves special comment. To 
understand it one should remember the chief his- 


1See The Life of Mr. Thomas Dudley, ed. C. Deane, in Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society Proceedings, xi, 207-222, ard, separately, 
Cambridge, 1870. 

* Letter of March 19, 1702, cited above. 


INTRODUCTION xlv 


torical facts to which it refers. In 1683 a quo war- 
ranto was issued against the charter by which Massa- 
chusetts had hitherto been governed, and in 1684 
the charter was revoked. This meant that the col- 
onists were deprived of what they had believed to 
be their right to conduct a government virtually 
independent of England. In 1686 Sir Edmund Andros 
came to Boston as royal governor of New England, 
and he was promptly hailed as a “tyrant.” He was 
accused of many crimes, sufficiently dilated upon 
by Cotton Mather, though Andros seems to have 
done no more than carry out his instructions from 
the king. As the colonists saw it, he attacked their 
titles to lands and homes, was in league with the 
French against the English, and had secret lean- 
ings toward Catholicism. He had, of course, sup- 
porters, but to most New Englanders he seems to 
have appeared as a creature of evil. By 1688 James 
II was convinced that it was to his interest to con- 
ciliate the nonconformists, and, in order to take ad- 
vantage of this, Increase Mather was sent to Eng- 
land to enlist the sympathies of the king on behalf 
of the Puritan colonists against Andros, and, if pos- 
sible, to procure the restoration of the old charter. 
He succeeded in getting fair promises from James, 
but the revolution of 1688 and the accession of Wil- 
liam III made it necessary for him to begin a new 
campaign with the new king in order to secure the 
objects of his mission. Meanwhile, in Boston, there 
was a rebellion against Andros, who was captured 
and imprisoned, while the government of the colony 
was put into the hands of those who had held office 
under the old charter. In this rebellion Cotton Mather 
played a leading part, and it seems to have been 


xlvi INTRODUCTION 


he who wrote the official declaration justifying it. His 
father in England succeeded in making the revolt 
against Andros appear to William III as an upris- 
ing of the people opposed to James II and favorable 
to the new monarch. He was less successful in obtain- 
ing the restoration of the old charter. With him, as 
agents of the colony in England, were associated 
Sir Henry Ashurst, a London merchant, and two 
Bostonians, Thomas Oakes and Elisha Cooke. After 
long and somewhat tangled negotiations Mather 
became convinced that the old charter could not 
be obtained, and, on the advice of English lawyers 
and politicians, he and Ashurst accepted a new one. 
This deprived New England of many of her “priv- 
ileges” and provided that she should be ruled by 
a governor, not chosen by representatives of the 
people, but appointed by the king. Probably the 
new charter was the best that could be obtained, 
but Cooke, and in some measure Oakes, opposed 
it. In general terms the issue was between those 
who, like Cooke and Oakes, were strict conservatives 
in their belief that no change in the old governmental 
scheme should be accepted, and the party of Mather 
and Ashurst, who realized that the colonists could 
not enforce their will on England, and that concil- 
iation would be useful in gaining further favors. 
Certainly they were more immediately successful 
than Cooke, for to them was granted the chance 
to nominate the royal governor and other officers 
to be appointed under the new charter. It had been 
stipulated that the governor must be a military man. 
Sir William Phips was the one New Englander of 
any standing in English political circles, who could 
boast of any considerable experience in war, and 


INTRODUCTION xl vii 


Mather and Ashurst nominated him as governor. 
There were, from Increase Mather’s point of view, 
other reasons for this choice. Phips was an attend- 
ant at his church, sympathetic to Congregationalism, 
and, doubtless, largely influenced by him. Cotton 
Mather, in Boston, hearing the news of Phips’s ap- 
pointment, rejoiced that the new governor, as well 
as the other new officers, were his friends, and sym- 
pathetic to the policies he advocated. Cooke, how- 
ever, was not without influence, and from 1692 he 
was the leader of the party opposed to the Mathers’ 
views. 

The “Life of Phips” came out first in 1697. Un- 
questionably Mather paints his subject in a highly 
favorable light, and quite as certainly Phips was, 
in reality, no paragon. He was hot-tempered, in- 
judicious, without unusual statesmanship, and, how- 
ever pious in his relation to the Second Church and 
the Mathers, by no means free from the vices of a 
badly educated, adventure-loving sea-dog. ‘This side 
of Phips, Mather overlooks, and he emphasizes Phips, 
the “‘self-made man,” raised to eminence by courage 
and industry, and Phips, the lover and servant of 
his country. There is an interesting problem—and 
an insoluble one—in deciding how far Mather’s book 
was written to exalt himself and his father and to 
defend their political tenets, and how far it was designed 
as a tribute to Sir William Phips. 

The work reveals Mather as a writer of narrative. 
The whole story is well told, concisely and with an eye 
to dramatic effect. The story of Phips’s suppres- 
sion of the projected mutiny, is distinguished by 
vividness of narration. Throughout, Mather gains 
life for his story by his use of colloquial terms. The 


xlvii INTRODUCTION 


“sows and pigs” of silver, the ship “careening, ” 
the boat ‘“‘busking to and again,” are all examples 
of his use of a vocabulary drawn from the speech 
of men like Phips himself. Thereby Mather gains 
the effect he doubtless sought—that of a story of 
real life told in the terms of real life, and bringing 
to its readers a sense of actual contact with the events 
described. 

The “Life of Phips” also illustrates a point already 
noted—Mather’s ability to follow sources and at the 
same time to adapt the words of his source to secure a 
literary effect. The same method will be observed 
if his “Life of Bradford,” is compared with Brad- 
ford’s History or the other early accounts of the 
Plymouth settlers, or if his ‘Life of Winthrop” is 
compared with Winthrop’s Journal. In the case of the 
“Life of Phips” two contemporary accounts of the at- 
tempt on Quebec have been printed since Mather’s 
day.!| One of them, at least, he knew when he told 
the story of Phips’s expedition to the St. Lawrence. 
To read his version in. connection with the narra- 
tives from which he drew his facts js to see how he 
condensed and improved the style, with reference not 
only to the needs of truthful reproduction but also 
with a definite feeling for a graphic narrative. 


IV 
The Christian Philosopher 


Cotton Mather’s Christian Philosopher has a pe- 
culiar interest. In it, as in no other of his works, 


‘See Two Accounts of the Expedition Against Quebec, A. D. 1690, 
ed. S. A. Green (Cambridge, 1902). 


INTRODUCTION xlix 


are revealed certain fundamental traits in Mather 
as a man of letters. In the briefest comment the book 
should be considered from at least three aspects. 
First, it shows much concerning Cotton Mather’s 
method of writing in a field where there were many 
authorities to consult; secondly, it is important as 
evidencing his advanced position in regard to certain 
lines of thought; and, finally, it makes plain how 
deeply zsthetic and purely literary considerations 
affected its author. 

As for the first point, Cotton Mather in his Intro- 
duction gives the essential facts. He planned the 
Christian Philosopher as a sort of summary of scien- 
tific knowledge, and as an argument for religion 
based on the facts of science. He was not learned 
in all fields of science, and could not hope to become 
so. Therefore he turned to the writers of England, 
who had written on science and its relation to reli- 
gion. Mr. Richard G. Wendell, working as a graduate 
student at Harvard, in 1924-25, made a careful in- 
vestigation of the sources of Essay xxvi of the Chris- 
tian Philosopher, and showed that Mather relied 
largely on a few English books, from which he took 
not only facts but quotations and citations of refer- 
ences. Mr. Wendell says: “‘I am now convinced 
that he has used comparatively few books as a back- 
ground for his own. He mentions more than fifty 
writers in the chapter ‘On Vegetables’; it is very 
doubtful if he was familiar with the works of ten. 
He has taken sentences and paragraphs from these 
works and incorporated them without change... . 
Sometimes he gives credit to his authority, but he 
is far more apt to report the original author, when 
he is mentioned in his source, while the intermediary 


] INTRODUCTION 


writer from whom he obtained the material is slighted.” 
Examination of the other sections of The Christian 
Philosopher here printed confirms this. Generally 
speaking, if one reads Mather’s book with Ray’s 
Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation, 
and his Physico-Theological Discourses, William Der- 
ham’s Physico-Theology, Dr. Cheyne’s Philosophical 
Principles of Religion, and Grew’s Cosmologia Sacra, 
open before him, he will discover that almost all that 
Mather says, almost all his quotations and references, 
are drawn from these books, or from a few others like 
them. At the same time, Mather rearranges what 
he thus extracts, condenses it, and in the process of 
his compilation shows once more his desire not only to 
take good material but to express it as well as may be. 
But the book is not merely a compilation, for often in 
discussing this or that topic he inserts observations 
of his own made in New England, or refers to a book 
recording original investigations in terms which show 
that he had a first-hand acquaintance with its contents. 

More interesting than the light it sheds upon Mather 
as a writer of a compendium of science, is the Christian 
Philosopher's exposition of its author's advanced 
intellectual position. The book was an attempt to 
. reconcile religion and science, and looks forward to 
Emerson’s, “‘The Religion that is afraid of science 
dishonors God and commits suicide.” It argues that 
the world is so wonderful and so beautiful a place 
that its very existence and nature are proof enough 
that an all-powerful and benevolent Creator exists, 
and scientific research is held up as the source of man’s 
knowledge of its wonder and beauty. So admirable 
are the provisions of Nature that in them is an argument 
for the existence not only of God but of a forgiving 


INTRODUCTION li 


Christ. All this was not new in 1721, when the book 
appeared, though Cotton Mather’s reasoning on some 
points was original. The English writers mentioned as 
his sources gave him the general argument. The in- 
tellectual significance of the book does not lie in 
its having originated the doctrine it contains, but 
in the fact that it was written in America, where 
such doctrine had not yet been expounded, and by 
Cotton Mather, a Calvinist, the devotee of the the- 
ology of the first American Puritans. To them God 
was a strict ruler, acting directly in earthly affairs, 
and much that later came to be regarded as simply 
the operation of natural law was held to be evidence 
of the power of the Lord manifested in the world. 
For them, too, man was vile, and only those divinely 
preordained were to be saved from Hell. Nature 
was rather awful than beautiful, a manifestation 
of God’s dread power, rather than of his love for 
mankind. From Calvinism America reacted sharply 
to the deism of Thomas Paine, and, Professor Riley 
shows that The Christian Philosopher is representa- 
tive of the first stage in this reaction.!_ Its point 
of view is that the yorld is well planned and well 
ordered, that it is beautiful, that to study nature 


is to realize God’s_ goodness, and, therefore, that 
man can appreciate God by the exercise of obser- 
vation and reason. This is a far cry from Mather’s 
own earlier position, and it is proof positive of his 
intellectual development. The Christian Philosopher 
is not gloomy in its point of view, but cheerful; it 


is not pessimistic but the reverse. It expresses as 





1See the references to The Christian Philosopher in Woodbridge 
Riley, American Thought (New York, 1923), and the same author’s 
American Philosophy—The Early Schools (New York, 1907). 


li INTRODUCTION 


no earlier American book had done the beginning 
of the more liberal philosophy of the eighteenth 
century, and that Mather wrote it, proves him to 
have been far more “‘modern” than his times, so 
far as New England was concerned, and the first 
man in the Colonies to express in print the dawning 
of the new ideas. This alone, had we no other evi- 
dence, would suffice to refute the theory that he 
represented completely a day in which the Puritan 
had ceased to develop intellectually and that “he 
reflected the Puritan spirit as it had hardened” and 
‘become ossified.”’ ! 

Last, and by no means least important, 1s the CAris- 
tian Philosopher's revelation of Mather as a literary 
artist. If the book is read with Mather’s sources 
its superiority as a piece of writing is at once appar- 
ent. To quote Mr. Richard Wendell again, “Like them 
[the English writers] Mather tried to glorify God; un- 
like these English writers he succeeded in giving us, 
not only a more or less heterogeneous compilation of 
facts, but an interesting and readable volume.” 
Mather’s whole attitude is one of enthusiasm, and 
an enthusiasm with which we,can sympathize. 

Again and again Mather dilates on the beauty 
of nature. This is a theme now familiar in our liter- 
ature, but discussions of it are not frequent until the 
late eighteenth century, and it is not easy to find 
an American author prior to Mather giving much 
attention to the beauty of his environment, But 
The Christian Philosopher shows constantly not 
only that Mather saw the wonders of nature with 
the observant eye of the scientist, but also that his 
feeling for them was akin to the poet’s. The passage 

1W. C. Ford, Preface in the Diary of Cotton Mather, i, p. xvii. 


INTRODUCTION lint 


in which he writes of the moon is prosaic enough, 
perhaps, and certainly far removed from Henry 
Thoreau’s passionate outburst of pagan adoration 
of the same “‘Luminary,”’ but the next line, referring to 
what has gone before, reads, “‘These are some of 
the Songs, which God, the Maker of us both, has 
given me in the Night.” ! Mather’s praise of God 
as revealed in the moon is a product of inspiration, 
of the mystic feeling that makes poets. 

The passage beginning on page 330 of the selection 
must have been written with an interest in form, 
an ear for cadence and the sound of the individual 
word. The printing of most of the sentences and 
phrases as separate paragraphs indicates that Mather 
was concerned with the artistic effect of his lines. 
Many of Walt Whitman’s poems made use of the 
method which Mather chose. To observe, to enu- 
merate one’s observations in long lines, without 
meter but with a certain cadence and a precise care 
for building up a structural effect in a long pas- 
sage—these things were essential in Whitman, and 
they are also in The Christian Philosopher. Mather 
was content that his pages should pass as prose, 
but both men desired to find artistic means of re- 
vealing their emotions, and they hit upon similar 
methods. 

Cotton Mather conceived of the “Anatomy of 


(omtetacms 


Plants” as a living testimony to the greatness of | 


God, and his adoration for God was too great for 
ordinary prose.” To utter it he sought, consciously 


1 The Christian Philosopher (1721), p. 51. 

2 The passage in question is taken almost verbatim from William 
Derham’s Physico-Theology (ed. London, 1714), Book X, but 
Mather’s form is his own, Derham having written in flat prose. 


| 


te INTRODUCTION 


or unconsciously, a special form, and achieved a style 
by no means unlike that adopted by a nineteenth 
century American hailed as an original literary gen- 
ius. I have no wish to draw a detailed parallel between 
Whitman and Mather, but it is possible to maintain 
that Cotton Mather was, at least in aspiration, a literary 
artist. The Christian Philosopher shows him to have 
been interested in skillful technique and in the power 
of language and style. 

Mather longed that this book might be put into 
the hands of all students. No doubt this was largely 
because of its lesson, its attempt to bring men to 
understand and worship God. Even if this side 
no longer interests, the book should not lose its appeal, 
for we can realize that, as Professor Riley has said, 
it anticipated by a hundred years the love of nature 
for its own sake, characteristic of the American 
transcendentalists, and that, in point of view and 
style, it is marked by qualities rare in the early years 
of our literary history. 


V 
The Political Fables 


Cotton Mather’s Political Fables were not printed 
in Mather’s time, but were circulated in manuscript, 
presumably about 1692. Such fables were usual enough 
in England, and cannot have been unfamiliar to the 
colonists. Dryden’s Hind and the Panther is but 
one example of the use of such material, and when 
‘sop was widely read, and the stories of Reynard 
and his companions were well known, there was 
nothing novel in pointing a political moral or tell- 
ing a tale of current events through the medium 


INTRODUCTION lv 


of the fable. It is true that Cotton Mather’s Po- 
litical Fables seem to have no counterpart in earlier 
American literature, but their importance lies less 
in the novelty of their form than in their style. Here 
is Mather, the contemporary of Swift and Addison, 
not Mather the disciple of the ‘“‘fantastic school’’; 
here is Mather the writer of ‘“‘modern” prose and 
the kinsman of the eighteenth century essayist, not 
Mather the pedant. 

What has been said of the political background 
of the “Life of Phips” explains sufficiently the pur- 
port of the Fables. They were written, it appears, 
to defend Increase Mather’s acceptance of the new 
charter against those who believed that he had wan- 
tonly sacrificed the old rights of New England. 

In The New Settlement of the Birds the characters are: 


The Birds The New Englanders 
Jupiter The King of England 
The Eagle Increase Mather 

The Goldfinch Sir Henry Ashurst 

The Harpies (or Locusts) The foes of New England 
The King’s-fisher Sir William Phips 


The fable itself is simply a statement of the advan- 
tages of the new charter, and the reasons why the 
colonists should be grateful for it. 

In The Elephant’s Case a little stated, the new char- 
acters are: 

The Elephant Sir William Phips 

Isgrim, or Bruin Any governor not favorable to 

New England’s best interests 

The fable states Phips’s defense of his position. 

In Mercury's Negotiation the new characters are: 

Mercury Increase Mather 


The sheep The New Englanders 


it INTRODUCTION 


The foxes Their enemies 

Janus Some one of the English politi- 
cians instrumental in drawing 
the new charter. 

Orpheus Probably Cotton Mather himself. 

“Eleven more of the celestial choristers”’ (page 370) 
seems to refer to eleven other ministers, and it is 
not clear who they were. When Increase Mather 
returned from England, thirteen English divines 
testified to his good work for the colony, and it may 
be that the reference is to them, with a change of 
thirteen to eleven. 

In this fable Cotton Mather describes in some 
detail his father’s services as agent for the colony, and 
discourses once more upon the merits of the new 
charter and the unreasonableness of protests against it. 

In the last fable, the wolves are the French, and 
the dogs are the New Englanders. Its point is simply 
that in a time when there were enemies at her gates, 
New England could not safely allow herself to be 
weakened by political disputes at home. 

How skillful the Fables are appears more clearly 
when one compares them with the history of the 
particular events and issues with which they dealt. 
In them Mather exemplified not only his ability as a 
writer but his grasp of at least one aspect of the tangled 
politics of the period. 


VI 
A Letter to Dr. Woodward 


This letter is here printed as a sample of Cotton 
Mather’s scientific communications to the Royal 
Society. ‘These were many, and deserve study. They 
exist completely only in manuscript, but Professor 


INTRODUCTION lvii 


Kittredge has catalogued them, and given an out- 
line of their contents.! He has said, referring to the 
letter printed in this volume, ‘“‘Mather’s account 
of the storm is a fine example of his style at its best.” 
He has also spoken a word of warning as to the way 
in which all Mather’s scientific communications 
should be read, saying: “They should be judged, 
not from the point of view of a modern specialist, 
but from that of the eighteenth century virtuosi to 
whom they were submitted. . . . The subjects that 
Mather treats are highly miscellaneous, and some 
of them seem to the casual reader more curious than 
edifying. The documents, therefore, are likely to 
be regarded as symptoms of a trivial and credulous 
temper. Not at all! A sufficient corrective for this 
notion is a cursory acquaintance with the writings 
of Mather’s European contemporaries, and in partic- 
ular with their notes and essays in the scientific 
journals of the day... . There is scarcely an item 
in these letters that cannot be paralleled in the Phil- 
osophical Transactions, or in the Ephemerides’ of 
what we now style the Leopoldina.” 2 

The letter on “An horrid snow” has a special 
interest because we can be sure just where Mather 
got much of his material for it, and just how he treated 
this material. On September 12, 1717, John Win- 
throp, grandson of the famous Governor John Win- 
throp of Massachusetts, wrote to Cotton Mather 
from New London, acknowledging a letter in which 
Mather had asked for his observations in regard 


1G. L. Kittredge, “Cotton Mather’s Scientific Communications 
to the Royal Society,” in American Antiquarian Society Proceedings 
(1916), xxvi, 18-57. 

2 Idem, 18-19, 44. 


lvili INTRODUCTION 


to the great snowfall of the previous winter.’ He 
tells the story of the wild animals coming down 
to the seashore and terrifying the sheep, of the lambs 
born ‘‘of Mounseir Reignards complexion & Couler,” 
of the two sheep found alive after twenty-eight days’ 
burial in the snow, of the shells cast up by the sea, 
and of the porpoises observed near the shore. Mather, 
in writing to Woodward, follows Winthrop exactly, 
for his data, but he condenses his informant’s ac- 
count, adds details from other sources, and puts the 
whole into a style and form far better than that of 
the original letter from Connecticut. If a charge 
of “credulity” is brought on the basis of Mather’s 
account of the storm, it should be made against Win- 
throp, not Mather. The latter took his facts from 
an excellent source—a letter from an honored magis- 
trate of Connecticut, a “natural philosopher,” and 
the son of a Fellow of the Royal Society. Moreover, 
Winthrop was no superstitious believer in marvels, 
but a scientist of parts. He was later elected to the 
Royal Society, and in the letter in which he writes 
of the storm he thanks Mather for his good offices in 
mentioning his name among the Fellows of that Society. 

The letter to Woodward about the great storms 
of 1717, brief as it is, serves to show Mather the 
scientist, writing of matters about which he had trust- 
worthy information, scrupulous in his treatment of 
the evidence, and dextrous in the style in which he 
wrote. His scientific communications do not deserve 
to be forgotten, for in them are made clear certain of 
his best qualities as a student of science, a scholar, and 
a man of letters. 


' The letter is in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society. 


NOTE ON THE TEXT 


In accordance with the purpose of the Series of 
which this volume forms a part, comparatively full 
selections are printed here from the writings of Cotton 
Mather. The Second Book of the Magnalia given 
here is virtually a work complete in itself; the Life 
of Phips included in this Book was originally pub- 
lished separately. The Political Fables, never printed 
in Cotton Mather’s lifetime, form a separate unit 
among his writings. ‘The selections from The Chris- 
tian Philosopher comprise a larger part of one of 
Mather’s most interesting books than is elsewhere 
accessible. The Letter to Dr. Woodward is a sample 
of his scientific communications to the Royal Society, 
and has interest as representing this class of his 
writings. 

The Magnalia does not exist in manuscript, nor does 
The Christian Philosopher, so that the present text re- 
produces the first printed edition of both of these works. 
The original punctuation, italicization, capitalization, 
and spelling have been preserved. The only changes 
have been the substitution of the modern s for the 
old long form of that letter, the representation by 
ordinary Roman capitals of words printed by Mather 
in antique capitals, and finally the substitution of 
modern Greek type for the archaic type used in the 
original edition. Cotton Mathér’s corrections given 
in the Errata to the printed editions are here made 
in the text as printed. The Political Fables follow 
the reprint in The Andros Tracts published by the 
Prince Society in 1869. The Letter to Dr. Woodward 
is printed from the manuscript owned by the Massa- 


lix 


Ix NOTESON®] THEME 


chusetts Historical Society and reproduces it exactly, 
except that manuscript abbreviations of pronouns 
are given in their full form. For example, “ye” 
in the manuscript is printed “the,” “yr” in the man- 
uscript is printed ‘‘your,”’ and so on. 

I have made no effort to annotate Mather’s text 
completely. I have given in footnotes the sense of 
the quotations in foreign languages, and I have com- 
mented briefly on most of the names and incidents 
alluded to in the text which seemed to need elucida- 
tion for modern readers. I have made no effort to 
identify Mather’s biblical references or the sources 
of his quotations, except where to do so seemed val- 
uable as an indication of the range of his information. 
Obviously it has been impossible to correct his errors 
or to add notes expanding and bringing up to date 
the historical and scientific data he gives. The notes 
are designed to meet the needs of students in col- 
leges, and have been carefully selected from much 
possible annotation for reasons of space. 

My gratitude for aid in the preparation of this 
book is due to many whom I should thank individ- 
ually did space permit, and in particular to Professor 
George L. Kittredge of Harvard University. 

K. B. M. 


SELECTED READING LIST 


I. WORKS OF COTTON MATHER 


There is no complete bibliography of Cotton Mather’s writings in 
print. The best bibliography available is in Sibley, J. L.: 
Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University (Cam- 
bridge, 1873-85), Vol. III, pp. 42-158. Only those works men- 
tioned in the Introduction are listed here. 

Angel of Bethesda, The. In manuscript, in the Library of the Ameri- 
can Antiquarian Society. 

Biblia Americana. In manuscript, in the Library of the Massachu- 
setts Historical Society. 

Bonifacius. An Essay Upon the Good, that is to be Devised and De- 
signed, etc., Boston, 1710. Under the title of Essays to do Good, 
this was often republished, e. g. Boston, 1808; Johnstown, 1815; 
Edinburgh and London, 1825; Dover, 1826; London, 1842; 
Boston, 1845. 

Christian Philosopher, The. London, 1721; Charlestown, 1815 
(garbled). 

Diary of Cotton Mather, The. Edited by W. C. Ford, in Massachusetts 
Historical Society Collections, Series 7, Vols. VII-VIII. Boston, 
IQII-I2. 

Letters to the Royal Society. See the list in G. L. Kittredge: Cotton 
Mather’s Scientific Communications, mentioned in Section IV, 
below. 

Magnalia Christi Americana: Or, the Ecclesiastical History of New 
England, etc. London, 1702; Hartford, 1820, 1853-55. The 
edition of 1853-55, though not satisfactory, is the best reprint 
of the work. A new reprint is now in preparation. 

Manuductio ad Mintsterium. Directions for a Candidate of the Minis- 
try, etc., Boston, 1726, London, 1781, 1789. 

Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions, etc. 
Boston, 1689; Edinburgh, 1697. 

Parentor. Memoirs of Remarkables in the Life and Death of Increase 
Mather. Boston, 1724. 

Political Fables. First printed in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Collections, Third Series, Vol. I; reprinted in The Andros Tracts 
(Boston, 1868~74), Vol, IT, pp. 325-32. 


Ixi 


Ixii SELECTED READING LIST 


Psalterium Americanum. The Book of Psalms, In a Translation 
Exactly conformed unto the Original; But all in Blank Verse, etc. 
Boston, 1718. 

Wonders of the Invisible World, The. Observations As well Historical 
as Theological, upon the Nature, The Number, and the Operations 
of the Devils, etc. Boston, 1693; London, 1693, 1862. 


II. BIOGRAPHIES 


Marvin, A. P. The Life and Times of Cotton Mather. Boston and 
Chicago, 1892. 

Wendell, Barrett. Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest, New York, 
1891, and Cambridge, 1926. The best biography of Mather. 


III. BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL ARTICLES 


Robbins, C. 4 History of the Second Church, or Old North, in Boston 
(Boston, 1852), pp. 67-115. 

Sibley, J. L. Biographical Sketches (see Section I, above), Vol. III, 
pp. 6-42. 


IV. SPECIAL TOPICS 


Deane, Charles. “The Light Shed upon Cotton Mather’s ‘Magnalia’ 
by His Diary,” Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, Vol. 
VI, pp. 404-414. 

Francke, Kuno. “Cotton Mather and August Hermann Francke,” 
Harvard Studies in Philology and Literature, Vol. V, pp. 57-67. 
“Further Documents Concerning Cotton Mather and August 
Hermann Francke,” Americana Germanica, Vol. I, No. 4. 

Holmes, T. J. “Cotton Mather and His Writings on Witchcraft,” 
Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Vol. XVIII, 
pp. 30-59 (Chicago, 1925). 

Kittredge, G. L. “Cotton Mather’s Election into the Royal Society,” 
Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Vol. XIV, 
pp. 81-114.“ Cotton Mather’s Scientific Communications to the 
Royal Society,” American’ Antiquarian Society Proceedings, Vol. 
XXVI, pp. 18-57 (Worcester, 1916). “Notes on Witchcraft,” 
American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, Vol. XVIII, pp. 148- 
212 (Worcester, 1907). “Some Lost Works of Cotton Mather,” 
Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, Vol. XLV, pp. 418- 
479 (Boston, 1912). 


SELECTED READING LIST lxii 


/Murdock, K. B. Increase Mather (Cambridge, 1925), Chaps. XIII- 
XV (on the relation of the Mathers to politics of the time), 
Chap. XVI (New England witchcraft). 

Poole, W. F. Cotton Mather and Salem Witchcraft (Boston, 1869). 
Also in North American Review, Vol. CVIII. 

Tuttle, J. H. “The Libraries of the Mathers,” American Antiquarian 
Society Proceedings, Vol. XX, pp. 269-356 (Worcester, 1910). 
Upham, C. W. “Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather,” Historical 

Magazine, September, 1869, and separately, Boston, 1869. 

alker, W. “The Services of the Mathers in New England Religious 
Development,” Papers of the American Society of Church History, 
Vol. V. 






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MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
"Ep 6€ tovto, THs THY évTevEauEevwy whEdELas EveKa. 


Dicam hoc propter utilitatem eorum qui Lecturt sunt 
hoc opus. Theodorit.! 


$I. WRITE the Wonders of the CHRISTIAN 

RELIGION, flying from the Depravations of 

Europe, to the American Strand: And, assisted 
by the Holy Author of that Religion, I do, with all 
Conscience of Truth, required therein by Him, who 
is the Truth it self, Report the Wonderful Displays of 
His Infinite Power, Wisdom, Goodness, and Faith- 
fulness, wherewith His Divine Providence hath Irra- 
diated an Indian Wilderness. 

I Relate the Considerable Matters, that produced 
and attended the First Settlement of COLONIES, 
which have been Renowned for the Degree of REF- 
ORMATION, Professed and Attained by Evangelical 
Churches, erected in those Ends of the Earth: And a 
Field being thus prepared, I proceed unto a Relation 
of the Considerable Matters which have been acted 
thereupon. 

I first introduce the Actors, that have, in a more 
exemplary manner served those Colonies; and give 
Remarkable Occurrences, in the exemplary LIVES of 


1“ T say this for the benefit of those who are readers of this book.” 
Theodoret was one of the early fathers of the Church, c. 393-457. 


I 


2 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


many Magistrates, and of more Ministers, who so 
Lived, as to leave unto Posterity, Examples worthy of 
Everlasting Remembrance. 

I add hereunto, the Notables of the only Protestant 
University, that ever shone in that Hemisphere of the 
New World; with particular Instances of Criolians,! 
in our Biography, provoking the whole World, with 
vertuous Objects of Emulation. 

I introduce then, the Actions of a more Eminent 
Importance, that have signalized those Colonies; 
Whether the Establishments, directed by their Synods; 
with a Rich Variety of Synodical and Ecclesiastical 
Determinations; or, the Disturbances, with which they 
have been from all sorts of Temptations and Enemies 
Tempestuated; and the Methods by which they have 
still weathered out each Horrible Tempest. 

And into the midst of these Actions, I interpose an 
entire Book, wherein there is, with all possible Veracity, 
a Collection made, of Memorable Occurrences, and amaz- 
ing Judgments and Mercies, befalling many particular 
Persons among the People of New-England. 

Let my Readers expect all that I have promised 
them, in this Bill of Fare; and it may be they will find 
themselves entertained with yet many other Passages, 
above and beyond their Expectation, deserving likewise 
a room in History: In all which, there will be nothing, 
but the Author's too mean way of preparing so great 
Entertainments, to Reproach the Invitation. 


§ 2. The Reader will doubtless desire to know, what 
it was that 

1 Criolians or Creolians, an obsolete word for pérsons born or 
naturalized in America but of European race. Cf. modern ‘‘ Creole,” 


and see New English Dictionary for the history of the meanings of 
this word. 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 3 


tot Volvere casus 
Insignes Pietate Viros, tot adire Labores, 
Impulerit.} 





And our History shall, on many fit Occasions which will 
be therein offered, endeavour, with all Aistorical 
Fidelity and Simplicity, and with as little Offence as 
may be, to satisfy him. The Sum of the Matter is, 
That from the very Beginning of the REFORMA- 
TION in the English Nation, there hath always been 
a Generation of Godly Men, desirous to pursue the 
Reformation of Religion, according to the Word of God, 
and the Example of the best Reformed Churches; and 
answering the Character of Good Men, given by Jose- 
phus, in his Paraphrase on the words of Samuel to Saul, 
undev Addo TrpayOnoecOa Karas bf’ Eavtov vouiCovrTes 
n OTL av Towjowor tov OBeov KeKedevKdTOS. They 
think they do nothing Right in the Service of God, but 
what they do according to the Command of God. And 
there hath been another Generation of Men, who have 
still employed the Power which they have generally 
still had in their Hands, not only to stop the Progress 
of the Desired Reformation, but also, with Innumerable 
Vexations, to Persecute those that most Heartily 
wished well unto it. There were many of the Reformers, 
who joyned with the Reverend JOHN FOX, in the 
Complaints which he then entred in his Martyrology,? 
about the Baits of Popery yet left in the Church; and 


1 “Trove men eminent in piety to endure so many calamities and 
to undertake so many hardships.” The quotation is slightly altered 
from the 4neid, I, 9-11. 

2 John Fox, 1516-1587, whose ramous Acts and Monuments, first 
printed in 1563, and usually referred to as Fox’s Book of Martyrs, 
told the stories of many English Martyrs. It was a book popular 
among American Puritans, and often cited by Cotton Mather. 


4 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


in his Wishes, God take them away, or ease us from them, 
for God knows, they be the Cause of much Blindness 
and Strife amongst Men! They Zealously decried the 
Policy of complying always with the Ignorance and 
Vanity of the People; and cried out earnestly for Purer 
Administrations in the House of God, and more Con- 
formity to the Law of Christ, and Primitive Christianity: 
While others would not hear of going any further than 
the First Essay of Reformation. ’Tis very certain, that 
the First Reformers never intended, that what They 
did, should be the Absolute Boundary of Reformation, 
so that it should be a Sin to proceed any further; as, 
by their own going beyond Wicklift, and Changing and 
Growing in their own Models also, and the Confessions 
of Cranmer, with the Scripta Anglicana of Bucer, and a 
thousand other things, was abundantly demonstrated. 
But after a Fruitless Expectation, wherein the truest 
Friends of the Reformation long waited, for to have that 
which Heylin himself! owns to have been the Design 
of the First Reformers, followed as it should have been, 
a Party very unjustly arrogating to themselves, the 
Venerable Name of, The Church of England, by Num- 
berless Oppressions, grievously Smote those their Fellow- 
Servants. Then ’twas that, as our Great OWEN hath 
expressed it,? Multitudes of Pious, Peaceable Protestants, 
were driven, by their Severities, to leave their Native Coun- 
iry, and seek a Refuge for their Lives and Liberties, with 


1Peter Heylyn, 1600-1662, an Anglican divine and _ historian, 
defended Bishop Laud, and wrote often against the Puritans. Natu- 
rally he was thoroughly disliked by men who thought as Cotton 
Mather did. 

2 John Owen, 1616-1683, usually called one of the three greatest 
English Puritans, was in high favor with American Puritans, and 
particularly with Cotton Mather. He wrote a preface for a book 
by Increase Mather. 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION F 


Freedom, for the Worship of God, in a Wilderness, in the 
Ends of the Earth. 


§3. It is the History of these PROTESTANTS, 
that is here attempted: PROTESTANTS that highly 
honoured and affected The Church of ENGLAND, 
and humbly Petition to be a Part of it: But by the 
Mistake of a few powerful Brethren, driven to seek a 
place for the Exercise of the Protestant Religion, accord- 
ing to the Light of their Consciences, in the Desarts of 
America. And in this Attempt I have proposed, not 
only to preserve and secure the Interest of Religion, 
in the Churches of that little Country NEW-ENG- 
LAND, so far as the Lord Jesus Christ may please to 
Bless it for that End, but also to offer unto the Churches 
of the Reformation, abroad in the World, some small 
Memorials, that may be serviceable unto the Designs 
of Reformation, whereto, I believe, they are quickly 
to be awakened. I am far from any such Boast, con- 
cerning these Churches, That they have Need of Nothing, 
I wish their Works were more perfect before God. Indeed, 
that which Austin called The Perfection of Christians, 
is like to be, until the Term for the Antichristian A pos- 
taste be expired, The Perfection of Churches too; Ut 
Agnoscant se nunquam esse perfectas.1 Nevertheless, 
I perswade my self, that so far as they have attained, 
they have given Great Examples of the Methods and 
Measures, wherein an Evangelical Reformation is to 
be prosecuted, and of the Qualifications requisite in 
the Instruments that are to prosecute it, and of the 
Difficulties which may be most likely to obstruct it, 
and the most likely Directions and Remedies for those 


1“ That they may acknowledge themselves to be by no means 
perfect.” 


6 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Obstructions. It may be, ’tis not possible for me to 
do a greater Service unto the Churches on the Best 
Island of the Universe, than to give a distinct Relation 
of those Great Examples which have been occurring 
among Churches of Exiles, that were driven out of 
that Island, into an horrible Wilderness, meerly for 
their being Well-willers unto the Reformation. When 
that Blessed Martyr Constantine was carried, with 
other Martyrs, in a Dung-Cart, unto the place of 
Execution, he pleasantly said, Well, yet we are a precious 
Odour to God in Christ. Tho’ the Reformed Churches 
in the American Regions, have, by very Injurious 
Representations of their Brethren (all which they 
desire to Forget and Forgive!) been many times thrown 
into a Dung-Cart; yet, as they have been a precious 
Odour to God in Christ, so, I hope, they will be a precious 
Odour unto His People; and not only Precious, but 
Useful also, when the History of them shall come to be 
considered. A Reformation of the Church is coming on, 
and I cannot but thereupon say, with the dying Cyrus to 
his Children in Xenophon, "Ex tv mpoyeyevvnpévov 
pavOdvete aut? yap apiorn SidacKxaria, Learn from the 
things that have been done already, for this 1s the best 
way of Learning. The Reader hath here an Account 
of The Things that have been done already. Bernard 
upon that Clause in the Canticles, [O thou fairest among 
Women] has this ingenious Gloss, Pulchram, non omnt- 
mode quidem, sed pulchram inter mulieres eam docet, 
videlicet cum Diustinctione, quatenus ex hoc amplius 
reprimatur, &9 sciat quid desit sib1.!. Thus I do not say, 
That the Churches of New-England are the most 


1“ He teaches that she is fair, not in a universal sense, but fair 
among women, plainly with a distinction, to which extent his praise 
is qualified, and she may know what is lacking to her.” 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 7 


Regular that can be; yet I do say, and am sure, That 
they are very like unto those that were in the First 
Ages of Christianity. And if I assert, That in the 
Reformation of the Church, the State of it in those 
First Ages, is to be not a little considered, the Great 
Peter Ramus,1 among others, has emboldened me. 
For when the Cardinal of Lorrain, the Maecenas of that 
Great Man, was offended at him, for turning Protestant, 
he replied, Inter Opes illas, quibus me ditasti, has etiam 
in eternum recordabor, quod Beneficio, Poesstace Res- 
ponsionts tue didicit, de Quindecim a Christo seculis, 
primum vere esse aureum, Reliqua, quo longius abscederent 
esse nequiora, atque deteriora: Tum igitur cum fieret 
optio, Aureum seculum delegi.2 In short, The First 
Age was the Golden Age: To return unto That, will 
make a Man a Protestant, and I may add, a Puritan. 
’Tis possible, That our Lord Jesus Christ carried some 
Thousands of Reformers into the Retirements of an 
American Desart, on purpose, that, with an opportunity 
granted unto many of his Faithful Servants, to enjoy 
the precious Liberty of their M nistry, tho’ in the midst 
of many Temptations all their days, He might there, 
To them first, and then By them, give a Specimen of 


1This opponent of Aristotelianism, and educational reformer, 
who lived 1515-1572, was much read by the Puritans. His books 
were favorites of Richard Mather, grandfather of Cotton, and when 
Increase Mather, Cotton’s father, graduated from Harvard, his 
commencement thesis was so much influenced by Ramus’s ideas as 
to arouse some criticism from the President of the College, who was a 
disciple of Aristotle’s views. 

2“ Among those riches, with which you enriched me, this I was 
mindful of always, which I learned from your reply at Poissy—that 
of the fifteen centuries since Christ, the first is truly golden. The 
rest, the farther they are removed from the first, are the more worth- 
less and degenerate. Therefore when choice was to be made, I chose 
the golden age.” 


8 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 
many Good Things, which He would have His Churches 


elsewhere aspire and arise unto: And This being done, 
He knows whether there be not All done, that New- 
England was planted for; and whether the Plantation 
may not, soon after this, Come to Nothing. Upon 
that Expression in the Sacred Scripture, Cast the un- 
profitable Servant into Outer Darkness, it hath been 
imagined by some, That the Regiones Extere of America, 
are the Tenebre Exteriores, which the Unprofitable 
are there condemned unto. No doubt, the Authors 
of those Ecclesiastical Impositions and Severities, 
which drove the English Christians into the Dark 
Regions of America, esteemed those Christians to be a 
very unprofitable sort of Creatures. But behold, ye 
European Churches, There are Golden Candlesticks 
[more than twice Seven times Seven!] in the midst of 
this Outer Darkness; Unto the upright Children of 
Abraham, here hath arisen Light in Darkness. And 
let us humbly speak it, it shall be Profitable for you to 
consider the Light, which from the midst of this Outer 
Darkness, is now to be Darted over unto the other side 
of the Atlantick Ocean. But we must therewithal ask 
your Prayers, that these Golden Candlesticks may not 
quickly be Removed out of their place! 


§4. But whether New-England may Live any 
where else or no, it must Live in our History! 

HISTORY, in general, hath had so many and mighty 
Commendations from the Pens of those Numberless 
Authors, who, from Herodotus to Howel,1 have been 
the professed Writers of it, that a tenth part of them 


‘James Howell, 1594?-1666, famous for his familiar letters, the 
Eptstole Ho-Eliane, was somewhat of a historian. Cotton Mather, 
later in the “Introduction,” attacks him for prejudice and bias, 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 9 


Transcribed, would be a Furniture for a Polyanthea in 
Folio. We, that have neither liberty, nor occasion, 
to quote those Commendations of History, will content 
our selves with the Opinion of one who was not much 
of a profess'd Historian, expressed in that passage, 
whereto all Mankind subscribe, Historia est Testis 
temporum, Nuntta vetustatis, Lux veritatis, vita memoria, 
magistra vite.” But of all History it must be confessed, 
that the Palm is to be given unto Church History; 
wherein the Dignity, the Suavity, and the Utility of 
the Subject is transcendent. I observe, that for the 
Description of the whole World in the Book of Genesis, 
that First-born of all Historians, the great Moses, 
employes but ove or two Chapters, whereas he implies,? 
it may be seven times as many Chapters, in describing 
that one little Pavilion, The Tabernacle. And when 
I am thinking, what may be the Reason of this Differ- 
ence, methinks it intimates unto us, That the Church 
wherein the Service of God is performed, is much more 
Precious than the World, which was indeed created 
for the Sake and Use of the Church. ’Tis very certain, 
that the greatest Entertainments must needs occur 
in the History of the People, whom the Son of God 
hath Redeemed and Purified unto himself, as a Peculiar 
People, and whom the Spirit of God, by Supernatural 
Operations upon their Minds, does cause to live like 
Strangers in this World, conforming themselves unto 
the Truths and Rules of his Holy Word, in Expectation 


1 J.¢., a large collection of select quotations, an anthology. 

2“ History is the witness of periods of time, the messenger of an- 
tiquity, the light of truth, the life of memory, the instructress of life.’ 
Cotton Mather here quotes Cicero (De Oratore, II, 9) but fails to 
preserve the original order. Probably he was relying on his memory 
of a familiar passage, 

3 Employes? 


if) MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


of a Kingdom, whereto they shall be in another and a 
better World advanced. Such a People our Lord 
Jesus Christ hath procured and preserved in all Ages 
visible; and the Dispensations of his wonderous Provi- 
dence towards this People (for, O Lord, thou do’st lift 
them up, and cast them down!) their Calamities, their 
Deliverances, the Dispositions which they have still 
discovered, and the considerable Persons and Actions 
found among them, cannot but afford Matters of 
Admiration and Admonition, above what any other 
Story can pretend unto: *lis nothing but Atheism in 
the Hearts of Men, that can perswade them otherwise. 
Let any Person of good Sense peruse the History of 
Herodotus, which, like a River taking Rise, where the 
Sacred Records of the Old Testament leave off, runs 
along smoothly and sweetly, with Relations that 
sometimes perhaps want an Apology, down until the 
Grecians drive the Persians before them. Let him then 
peruse Thucydides, who from Acting betook himself 
to Writing, and carries the ancient State of the Grecians, 
down to the twenty first Year of the Peloponnesian 
Wars in a manner, which Casaubon judges to be Miran- 
dum potius quam imitandum.: Let him next Revolve 
Xenophon, that Bee of Athens, who continues a Narra- 
tive of the Greek Affairs, from the Peloponnesian Wars, 
to the Battle of Mantinea, and gives us a Cyrus into 
the bargain, at such a rate, that Lipsius reckons the 
Character of a Suavi, Fidus &9 Circumspectus Scriptor,? 
to belong unto him. Let him from hence proceed unto 
Diodorus Siculus, who, besides a rich Treasure of 
Egyptian, Assyrian, Lybian and Grecian, and other 


1“ To be admired rather than imitated.” 
?“An agreeable, faithful and careful writer.” Justus Lipsius, 
1547-1606, was a learned critic, and editor of classical texts. 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION II 


Antiquities, in a Phrase, which according to Photius’s 
Judgment, is *toTopia padtota mperrovon, of all most 
becoming an Historian,’ carries on the Thread begun 
by his Predecessors, until the End of the Hundred 
and nineteenth Olympiad; and where he is defective, 
let it be supplied from Arianus, from Justin, and from 
Curtius, who in the relish of Colerus is, Quovis melle 
dulcior.2, Let him hereupon consult Polybius, and 
acquaint himself with the Birth and Growth of the 
Roman Empire, as far as ’tis described, in Five of the 
Forty Books composed by an Author, who with a 
Learned Professor of Htstory 1s, Prudens Scriptor, st 
guis alius.2 Let him now run over the Table of the 
Roman Affairs, compendiously given by Lucius Florus, 
and then let him consider the Transactions of above 
three hundred Years reported by Dionysius Halicar- 
nasse@us, who, if the Censure of Bodin may be taken, 
Grecos omnes &F Latinos superasse videatur.* Let him 
from hence pass to Livy, of whom the famous Critick 
says, Hoc solum ingenium (de Historicis Loquor) populus 
Romanus par Imperio suo habuit,> and supply those 
of his Decads that are lost, from the best Fragments 
of Antiquity, in others (and especially Dion and Salust) 
that lead us on still further in our way. Let him then 
proceed unto the Writers of the Cesarean times, and 
first revolve Suetonius, then Tacitus, then Herodian, 
then a whole Army more of Historians, which now 


1 Photius, patriarch of Constantinople in the second half of the 
ninth century. 

2“ More sweet than honey.” Colerus is probably Johann Coler, 
a German theological writer of the sixteenth century. 

3“ A discreet writer, if there ever was one.” 

4“ Seems to have surpassed all the Greeks and Latins.” 

5“ As for historians, the Romans had this one genius worthy of 
their empire.” 


12 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


crowd into our Library; and unto all the rest, let him 
not fail of adding the Incomparable Plutarch, whose 
Books they say, Theodore Gaza preferred above any 
in the World, next unto the Inspired Oracles of the 
Bible: But if the Number be still too little to satishe 
an Historical Appetite, let him add Polyhistor unto the 
number, and all the Chronicles of the following Ages. 
After all, he must sensibly acknowledge, that the two 
short Books of Ecclesiastical History, written by the 
Evangelist Luke, hath given us more glorious Enter- 
tainments, than all these voluminous Historians if they 
were put all together. The Atchievements of one Paul 
particularly, which that Evangelist hath Emblazon‘d, 
have more Jrue Glory in them, than all the Acts of 
those Execrable Plunderers and Murderers, and 1r- 
resistible Banditti of the World, which have been 
dignified with the Name of Conquerors. Tacitus counted 
Ingentia bella, Expugnationes urbium, fusos captosque 
Reges,' the Ravages of War, and the glorious Violences, 
whereof great Warriors make a wretched Ostentation, 
to be the Noblest Matter for an Historian. But there 
is a Nobler, | humbly conceive, in the planting and 
forming of Evangelical Churches, and the Temptations, 
the Corruptions, the Afflictions, which assault them, 
and their Salvations from those Assaults, and the 
Exemplary Lives of those that Heaven employs to be 
Patterns of Holiness and Usefulness upon Earth: And 
unto such it is, that I now invite my Readers; Things, 
in comparison whereof, the Subjects of many other 
Histories, are of as little weight, as the Questions about 
Z, the last Letter of our Alphabet, and whether H is 
to be pronounced with an Aspiration, where about 
whole Volumes have been written, and of no more 
1 “Vast wars, captures of cities, kings captured or in flight.” 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 13 


Account, than the Composure of Didymus.! But for 
the manner of my treating this Matter, | must now give 
some account unto him. 


§5. Reader! I have done the part of an Impartial 
Historian, albeit not without all occasion perhaps, 
for the Rule which a worthy Writer, in his Historica, 
gives to every Reader, Historici Legantur cum Moder- 
atione &F venta, &F cogitetur fiert non posse ut in omnibus 
circumstantius sint Lyncet.2 Polybius complains of 
those Historians, who always made either the Cartha- 
genians brave, and the Romans base, or é contra, in all 
their Actions, as their Affection for their own Party 
led them. I have endeavoured, with all good Conscience, 
to decline this writing meerly for a Party, or doing like 
the Dealer in History, whom Lucian derides, for always 
calling the Captain of his own Party an Achilles, but 
of the adverse Party a Thersites: Nor have I added 
unto the just Provocations for the Complaint made 
by the Baron Maurier, That the greatest part of Histories 
are but so many Panegyricks composed by Interested 
Hands, which elevate Iniquity to the Heavens, like Pater- 
culus, and like Machiavel, who propose Tiberius Cesar, 
and Cesar Borgia, as Examples fit for Imitation, whereas 
True History would have Exhibited them as Horrid 
Monsters as very Devils. *Tis true, I am not of the 
Opinion, that one cannot merit the Name of an Impartial 


1 Alexandrian grammarian of the time of Cicero, sometimes accused 
of having written so much that in his later writing he contradicted 
statements he had made in earlier ones. 

2“ Historians are to be read with moderation and indulgence, and 
it is to be remembered that they cannot in everything be as keen- 
sighted as Lynceus.” 

3 Probably Louis Aubery, Seigneur du Maury, d. 1687, writer of 
several historical works. 


14 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Historian, except he write bare Matters of Fact, without 
all Reflection; for I can tell where to find this given as 
the Definition of History, Historia est rerum gestarum, 
cum laude aut vituperatione, Narratio:' And if I am not 
altogether a Tacitus, when Vertues or Vices occur to 
be matters of Reflection, as well as of Relation, I will, 
for my Vindication, appeal to Tacitus himself, whom 
Lipsius calls one of the Prudentest (tho’ Tertullian, 
long before, counts him the Lyingest) of them who have 
Inriched the World with History: He says, Precipuum 
munus Annalium reor, ne virtutes sileantur, utque pravis 
Dictis, Factisque ex posteritate §F Infamia metus sit.” 
I have not Commended any Person, but when IJ have 
really judg’d, not only That he Deserved it, but also 
that it would be a Benefit unto Posterity to know, 
Wherein he deserved it: And my Judgment of Desert, 
hath not been Biassed, by Persons being of my own 
particular Judgment in matters of Disputation, among 
the Churches of God. I have been as willing to wear 
the Name of Simplicius Verinus,’ throughout my whole 
undertaking, as he that, before me, hath assumed it: 
Nor am I like Pope Zachary, impatient so much as to 
hear of any Antipodes.t The Spirit of a Schlusselberg- 
ius,° who falls foul with Fury and Reproach on all 

1 “ History 1s the story of events, with praise or blame.” 

2“T regard it as history’s highest function not to let virtues be 
uncelebrated, and to hold up asa terror the censure of posterity for 
bad words and deeds.” (Tacitus, Annals, iti, 65.) 

3Simplicius Verinus was the name assumed at times by Claude 
Saumaise (Salmasius), 1588-1653, a French classical scholar, famous 
for his controversy with Milton. 

‘Pope Zacharias, bishop of Rome from 741 to 752, directed that 
there be expelled from the church one Virgilius who held that there 
was another world below the earth. 


’ Konrad Schlisselburg, 1543-1619, Lutheran writer and contro- 
versialist. 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 5 


who differ from him; The Spirit of an Heylin, who 
seems to count no Obloquy too hard for a Reformer; 
and the Spirit of those (Folio-writers there are, some of 
them, in the English Nation!) whom a Noble Historian 
Stigmatizes, as, Those Hot-headed, Passionate Bigots, 
from whom, ’tis enough, 1f you be of a Religion contrary 
unto theirs, to be defamed, condemned and pursued with 
a thousand Calumnies. I thank Heaven [ Hate it with 
all my Heart. But how can the Lives of the Commena- 
able be written without Commending them? Or, 1s 
that Law of History given in one of the eminentest 
pieces of Antiquity we now have in our hands, wholly 
antiquated, Maxime proprium est Historie, Laudem 
rerum egregie gestarum persequi?' Nor have I, on the 
other side, forbore to mention many Censurable things, 
even in the Best of my Friends, when the things, in my 
opinion, were not Good; or so bore away for Placentia, 
in the course of our Story, as to pass by Verona;* but 
been mindful of the Direction which Polybius gives to 
the Historian, It becomes him that writes an History, 
sometimes to extol Enemies in his Praises, when their 
praise-worthy Actions bespeak it, and at the same time 
to reprove the best Friends, when their Deeds appear 
worthy of a reproof; in-as much as History is good for 
nothing, if Truth (which 1s the very Eye of the Animal) 
be not in it. Indeed I have thought it my duty upon 
all accounts, (and if it have proceeded unto the degree 


1 “Trt is in the highest degree the property of history to record praise 
of good deeds.” 

2 Cotton Mather’s phrasing here suggests that “to bear away for 
Placentia, and to miss Verona” was a proverbial expression, meaning 
about what our “‘to fail to see the woods for the trees” implies. Prob- 
ably the reference is to Hasdrubal’s entry into Italy, when his laying 
siege to Placentia delayed his entry into the heart of Italy. (Cf. 
Livy, xxvii, 39, 43. 


16 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


of a Fault, there is, it may be, something in my Temper 
and Nature, that has betray’d me therein) to be more 
sparing and easie, in thus mentioning. of Censurable 
things, than in my other Liberty: A writer of Church- 
History, should, I know, be like the builder of the Temple, 
one of the Tribe of Naphthali; and for this I will also 
plead my Polybius in my Excuse; It is not the Work of 
an Historian, to commemorate the Vices and Villanies 
of Men, so much as their just, their fair, their honest 
Actions: And the Readers of History get more good by 
the Objects of their Emulation, than of their Indignation. 
Nor do I deny, that tho’ I cannot approve the Conduct 
of Josephus, (whom Jerom not unjustly nor ineptly 
calls, The Greek Livy) when he left out of his Antiquities, 
the Story of the Golden Calf, and I don’t wonder to 
find Chamier, and Rivet,1 and others, taxing him for 
his Partiality towards his Country-men; yet I have left 
unmentioned some Censurable Occurrences in the Story 
of our Colonies, as things no less Unuseful than Im- 
proper to be raised out of the Grave, wherein Oblivion 
hath now buried them; lest I should have incurred the 
Pasquil bestowed upon Pope Urban, who employing 
a Committee to Rip up the Old Errors of his Predecessors, 
one clap’d a pair of Spurs upon the heels of the Statue 
of St. Peter; and a Label from the Statue of St. Paul 
opposite thereunto, upon the Bridge, ask’d him, Whither 
he was bound? St. Peter answered, I apprehend some 
Danger in staying here; I fear they'll call me 1n Question 
for denying my Master. And St. Paul replied, Nay, 
then I had best be gone too, for they'll question me also, 
for Persecuting the Christians before my Conversion. 
Briefly, My Pen shall Reproach none, that can give a 


1Daniel Chamier, 1570?-1621, French Protestant writer, and 
André Rivet, 1573-1651, French Calvinist theologian. 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 17 


Good Word unto any Good Man that is not of their 
own Faction, and shall Fall out with none, but those 
that can Agree with no body else, except those of their 
own Schism. If I draw any sort of Men with Charcoal, 
it shall be, because I remember a notable passage of 
the Best Queen that ever was in the World, our late 
Queen Mary.’ Monsieur Jurieu, that he might Justifie 
the Reformation in Scotland, made a very black Repre- 
sentation of their old Queen Mary; for which, a certain 
Sycophant would have incensed our Queen Mary 
against that Reverend Person, saying, Js it not a Shame 
that this Man, without any Consideration for your Royal 
Person, should dare to throw such Infamous Calumnies 
upon a Queen, from whom your Royal Highness is de- 
scended? But that Excellent Princess replied, No, not 
at all; Is 1t not enough that by fulsome Praises great 
Persons be lull’d asleep all their Lives; But must Flattery 
accompany them to their very Graves? How should they 
fear the Judgment of Posterity, if Historians be not 
allowed to speak the Truth after their Death? But whether 
I do my self Commend, or whether I give my Reader 
an opportunity to Censure, I am careful above all 
things to do it with Truth; and as I have considered 
the words of Plato, Deum indigne &% graviter ferre, 
cum quis er similem hoc est, virtute prestantem, vituperet, 
aut laudet contrarium:* So I have had the Ninth Com- 
mandment of a greater Law-giver than Plato, to preserve 
my care of Truth from first to last. If any Mistake 
have been any where committed, it will be found meerly 
Circumstantial, and wholly Involuntary; and let it be 


1 Queen Mary, wife of William III, died in 1694. 

?“Tt is to act unworthily and offensively toward God, to abuse 
anyone who ts like him excelling in virtue, or to praise the opposite 
of such a one.” 


18 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


remembred, that tho’ no Historian ever merited better 
than the Incomparable Thuanus,' yet learned Men 
have said of his Work, what they never shall truly say 
of ours, that it contains multa falsissima & indigna.” 
I find Erasmus himself mistaking One Man for Two, 
when writing of the Ancients. And even our own 
English Writers too are often mistaken, and in Matters 
of a very late Importance, as Baker, and Heylin, and 
Fuller, (professed Historians) tell us, that Richard 
Sutton, a single Man, founded the Charter-House; 
whereas his Name was Thomas, and he was a married 
Man. I think I can Recite such Mistakes, it may be 
Sans Number occurring in the most credible Writers; 
yet I hope I shall commit none such. But altho’ I 
thus challenge, as my due, the Character of an Impar- 
tial, I doubt I may not challenge That of an Elegant 
Historian. I cannot say, whether the Style, wherein 
this Church-History is written, will please the Modern 
Criticks: But if I seem to have used amdovoTtaty 
cuvtage ypadns,® a Simple, Submiss, Humble Style, 
‘tis the same that Eusebius affirms to have been 
used by Hegesippus, who, as far as we understand, 
was the first Author (after Luke) that ever composed 
an entire Body of Ecclesiastical History, which he 
divided into Five Books, and Entitled, vrouvnpata 
ToV ExKAnoLacTiK@Y Tpatewr.4 Whereas others, it may 
be, will reckon the Style Embellished with too much of 
Ornament, by the multiplied References to other and 
former Concerns, closely couch’d, for the Observation 
of the Attentive, in almost every Paragraph; but I must 


1 Jacques Auguste de Thou, French historian and poet, 1553-1617. 
2 “Much that is most false and unworthy.” 

3“The most simple style of writing.” 

4“ Memorials of ecclesiastical transactions.” 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 19 


confess, that I am of his mind who said, Sicuti sal 
modice cibis aspersus Condit, &9 gratiam saporis addit, 
tta 51 paulum Antiquitatis admiscueris, Oratio fit venus- 
tior.’ And I have seldom seen that Way of Writing 
faulted, but by those, who, for a certain odd Reason, 
sometimes find fault, That the Grapes are not ripe. 
These Embellishments (of which yet I only—Veniam 
pro laude peto)* are not the puerile Spoils of Polyanthea’s, 
but I should have asserted them to be as choice Flowers 
as most that occur in Ancient or Modern Writings, 
almost unavoidably putting themselves into the Authors 
Hand, while about his Work, if those words of Ambrose 
had not a little frightened me, as welleas they did 
Barontus, Unumquemque Fallunt sua ACEI. 3 
observe that Learned Men have been so terrified by 
the Reproaches of Pedantry, which little Smatterets 
at Reading and Learning have, by their Quoting Hum- 
ours brought upon themselves, that, for to avoid all 
Approaches towards that which those Feeble Creatures 
have gone to imitate, the best way of Writing has been 
most injuriously deserted. But what shall we say? 
The Best way of Writing, under Heaven, shall be the 
Worst, when Erasmus his Monosyllable Tyrant ¢ will 
have it so! And if I should have resign’d my self 
wholly to the Judgment of others, What way of Writing 


1“ Just as salt discreetly spread on food seasons it, and increases its 
flavor, so to mix in a little of antiquity makes style more pleasing.” 

2“T ask pardon for this praise.” 

$“ Everyone errs about his own writings.” 

‘, Our speech at this day (for the most part) consisteth of words 
of one sillable. Which thing Erasmus observing, merily in his Eccle- 
siast, compareth the English toong to a Dogs barking, that soundeth 
nothing els, but Baw, waw, waw, in Monosillable.” William Lam- 
barde, Perambulation of Kent, p. 233 (ed. 1826). This was written 
In 1570. 


20 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


to have taken, the Story of the two Statues made by 
Policletus tells me, what may have been the Issue:! He 
contrived one of them according to the Rules that 
best pleased himself, and the other according to the 
Fancy of every one that look’d upon his Work: The 
former was afterwards Applauded by all, and the latter 
Derided by those very Persons who had given their 
Directions for it. As for such Unaccuracies as the 
Critical may discover, Opere in longo,” I appeal to the 
Courteous, for a favourable Construction of them; and 
certainly they will be favourably Judged of, when 
there is considered the Variety of my other Employ- 
ments, which have kept me in continual Hurries, I had 
almost said, like those of the Ninth Sphere,® for the 
few Months in which this Work has been Digesting. 
It was a thing well thought, by the wise Designers 
of Chelsey-Colledge, wherein able Historians were one 
sort of Persons to be maintained;? That the Romanists 
do in one Point condemn the Protestants; for among 
the Romanists, they don’t burden their Professors 
with any Parochial Incumbrances; but among the 
Protestants, the very same Individual Man must Preach, 
Catechize, Administer the Sacraments, Visit the Afflicted, 
and manage all the parts of Church-Discipline; and if 
any Books for the Service of Religion, be written, 
Persons thus extreamly incumbred must be the Writers. 
Now, of all the Churches under Heaven, there are 
none that expect so much Variety of Service from their 
Pastors, as those of New-England; and of all the Churches 


1 The story which follows occurs in lian, and, doubtless, elsewhere. 

2“Tn a long work.” 

8 The ninth or “Crystalline Sphere” in the Ptolemaic svstem of 
astronomy. 


4 King James’ College, Chelsea, founded 1609. 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 21 


in New-England, there are none that require more, than 
those in Boston, the Metropolis of the English America; 
whereof one is, by the Lord Jesus Christ, committed 
unto the Care of the unworthy Hand, by which this 
History is compiled. Reader, Give me leave humbly 
to mention, with him in Tully, Antequam de Re, Pauca 
de Me!* Constant Sermons, usually more than once, 
and perhaps three or four times, in a Week, and all the 
other Duties of a Pastoral Watchfulness, a very large 
Flock has all this while demanded of me; wherein, 
if [had been furnished with as many Heads as a Typheus, 
as many Fyes as an Argos, and as many Hands as a 
Briareus, | might have had Work enough to have em- 
ploy’d them all; nor hath my Station left me free from 
Obligations to spend very much time in the Evangelical 
Service of others also. It would have been a great Sin 
in me, to have Omitted, or Abated, my Just Cares, 
to fulfil my Ministry in these things, and in a manner 
Give my self wholly to them. All the time I have had for 
my Church-History, hath been perhaps only, or chiefly, 
that, which I might have taken else for less profitable 
Recreations; and it hath all been done by Snatches. 
My Reader will not find me the Person intended in 
his Littany, when he says, Libera me ab homine unius 
Negotis:? Nor have I spent Thirty Years in shaping 
this my History, as Diodorus Siculus did for his, [and yet 
both Bodinus and Sigonius* complain of the =¢adpara 4 
attending it.] But I wish I could have enjoy’d entirely 
for this Work, one quarter of the little more than 


1 Before coming to the subject, a little about myself.” 

2 “Deliver me from a man of but one interest.” 

* Charles Sigonius (Carlo Sigonio), 1524-1585, Italian writer and 
philologist. 

See Irors. 


22 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Two Years which have roll’d away since I began it; 
whereas I have been forced sometimes wholly to throw 
by the Work whole Months together, and then resume 
it, but by a stolen hour or two in a day, not without 
some hazard of incurring the Title which Coryat put 
upon his History of his Travels, Crudities hastily gobbled 
up in five Months. Protogenes being seven Years in 
drawing a Picture, Apelles upon the sight of it, said, 
The Grace of the Work was much allay’d by the length 
of the Time. Whatever else there may have been to 
take off the Grace of the Work, now in the Readers 
hands, (whereof the Pictures of Great and Good Men 
make a considerable part) | am sure there hath not 
been the length of the Time to do it. Our English 
Martyrologer, counted it a sufficient 4pology, for what 
Meanness might be found in the first Edition of his 
Acts and Monuments, that it was hastily rashed up in 
about fourteen Months: And I may Apologize for this 
Collection of our Acts and Monuments, that I should 
have been glad, in the little more than Two Years 
which have ran out, since I enter’d upon it, if I could 
have had one half of About fourteen Months to have 
entirely devoted thereunto. But besides the Time, 
which the Daily Services of my own first, and then many 
other Churches, have necessarily call’d for, I have lost 
abundance of precious Time, thro’ the feeble and 
broken State of my Health, which hath unfitted me 
for Hard Study; [ can do nothing to purpose at Lucubra- 
tions. And yet, in this Time also of the two or three 
Years last past, I have not been excused from the further 
Diversion of Publishing (tho’ not so many as they say 
Mercurtus Trismegistus' did, yet) more than a Score 


1 The Latin name of the Egyptian God, Thoth, reputed author of 
many works on Egypt. 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 23 


of other Books, upon a copious Variety of other Subjects, 


besides the composing of several more, that are not_ 


yet published. Nor is this neither all the Task that I 
have in this while had lying upon me; for (tho’ I am 
very sensible of what Jerom said, Non bene fit, quod 
occupato Animo fit;' and of Quintilian’s Remark, 
Non simul in multa intendere Animus totum potest,;”) 
when I applied my mind unto this way of serving the 
Lord JESUS CHRIST in my Generation, I set upon 
another and a greater, which has had, I suppose, more 
of my Thought and Hope than this, and wherein there 
hath passed me, for the most part, Nulla dies sine 
linea.® I considered, That all sort of Learning might 
be made gloriously Subservient unto the IJlustration 
of the Sacred Scripture; and that no professed Commen- 
tartes had hitherto given a thousandth part of so much 
Illustration unto it, as might be given. I considered, 
that Multitudes of particular Texts, had, especially of 
later Years, been more notably Illustrated in the Scat- 
tered Books of Learned Men, than in any of the Ordinary 
Commentators. And I consider’d, That the Treasures 
of Illustration for the Bible, dispersed in many hundred 
Volumes, might be fetch’d all together by a Labour 
that would resolve to Conquer all things; and that all 
the Improvements which the Later-ages have made in 
the Sciences, might be also, with an inexpressible 
Pleasure, call’d in, to Assist the Jilustration of the 
Holy Oracles, at a Rate that hath not been attempted 
in the vulgar Annotations; and that a common degree 
of Sense, would help a Person, who should converse 
much with these things, to attempt sometimes also 
1“ What is done with an occupied mind, is not well done.” 


2“ Onecannot put hiswhole mind onmany things at the same time.” 
“No day without a line.” 


Ba B= 


\ 


24 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


an Illustration of his own, which might expect some 
Attention. Certainly, it will not be ungrateful unto 
good Men, to have innumerable Antiquities, Jewish, 
Chaldee, Arabian, Grecian and Roman, brought home 
unto us, with a Sweet Light Reflected from them on the 
Word, which is our Light: Or, To have all the Typical 
Men and things in our Book of Mysteries, accommodated 
with their Antitypes: Or, To have many Hundreds 
of References to our dearest Lord Messiah, discovered 
in the Writings which Testifie of Him, oftner than the 
most of Mankind have hitherto imagined: Or, To have 
the Histories of all Ages, coming in with punctual 
and surprising Fulfillments of the Divine Prophecies, 
as far as they have been hitherto fulfilled; and not meer 
Conjectures, but even Mathematical and Incontestable 
Demonstrations, given of Expositions offered upon the 
Prophecies, that yet remain to be accomplished: Or, 
To have in One Heap, Thousands of those Remarkable 
Discoveries of the deep things of the Spirit of God, whereof 
one or two, or a few, sometimes, have been, with good 
Success accounted Materials enough to advance a 
Person into Authorism; or to have the delicious Curio- 
sities of Grotius, and Bochart, and Mede, and Lightfoot, 
and Selden, and Spencer! (carefully selected and cor- 
rected) and many moreGiants in Knowledge, all set upon 
one Table. Travellers tell us, That at Florence there 
is a rich Table, worth a thousand Crowns, made of 
Precious Stones neatly inlaid; a Table that was fifteen 
Years in making, with no less than thirty Men daily 


1Grotius, 1583-1645, the great Dutch lawyer and theologian; 
Samuel Bochart, 1599-1667, French Protestant scholar; Joseph 
Mede, 1586-1638, English theologian; John Lightfoot, 1602-1675, 
learned English divine; John Selden, 1584-1654, statesman, political 
writer and archeologist; and John Spencer, 1630-1695, theologian 
and Hebraist, were all men whose works Cotton Mather knew well, 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 25 


at work upon it; even such a Table could not afford so 
rich Entertainments, as one that should have the 
Soul-feasting Thoughts of those Learned Men together 
set upon it. Only ’tis pitty, that instead of one poor 
feeble American, overwhelm’d with a thousand other 
Cares, and capable of touching this Work no otherwise 
than in a Digression, there be not more than Thirty 
Men daily employ’d about it. For, when the excellent 
Mr. Pool} had finished his Laborious and Immortal 
Task, it was noted by some considerable Persons, 
That wanting Assistance to Collect for him many miscel- 
laneous Criticisms, occasionally scattered in other Authors, 
he left many better Things behind him than he found. 
At more than all this, our Essay is levell’d, if it be not 
anticipated with that Epitaph, magnis tamen excidit 
ausis.” Designing accordingly, to give the Church of 
God such displays of his blessed Word, as may be more 
Entertaining for the Rarity and Novelty of them, 
than any that have hitherto been seen together in any 
Exposition; and yet such as may be acceptable unto 
the most Judicious, for the Demonstrative Truth of 
them, and unto the most Orthodox, for the regard 
had unto the Analogy of Faith in all, I have now, in a 
few Months, got ready an huge number of Golden Keys 
to open the Pandects of Heaven, and some thousands 
of charming and curious and singular Notes, by the 
New Help whereof, the Word of CHRIST may run and 
be glorified. If the God of my Life, will please to spare 
my Life [my yet Sinful, and Slothful, and thereby 
Fofeited Life!] as many years longer as the Barren 
Fig-tree had in the Parable, I may make unto the 


1 Matthew Poole, 1624-1709, compiled a famous Synopsis of the 
various biblical commentators. 
2“ Yet he fell short of what he had ventured to atten.pt.” 


26 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Church of God, an humble Tender of our BIBLIA 
AMERICANA,! a Volumn enrich’d with better things 
than all the Plate of the Indies; YET NOT I, BUT THE 
) GRACE OF CHRIST WITH ME. My Reader sees, 
~ why I commit the Fault of a 7eptavria,? which appears 
in the mention of these Minute-passages; ’tis to excuse 
whatever other Fault of Inaccuracy, or Inadvertency, 
may be discovered in an History, which hath been a 
sort of Rapsody made up (like the Paper whereon ’tis 
written!) with many little Rags, torn from an Employ- 
ment, multifarious enough to overwhelm one of my 
small Capacities. 


Magna dabit, qui magna potest; mtht parva potenti, 
Parvaque poscenti, parva dedisse sat est.® 


§ 6. But shall I prognosticate thy Fate, now that, 
Parve (sed invideo) ne me, Liber, ibis 1n Urbem.* 


Luther, who was himself owner of such an Heart, 
advised every Historian to get the Heart of a Lion; 
and the more I consider of the Provocation, which 
this our Church-History must needs give to that Roar- 
ing Lion, who has, through all Ages hitherto, been 
tearing the Church to pieces, the more occasion I see 
to wish my self a Ceur de Lion. But had not my Heart 
been Trebly Oak’d and Brass’d for such Encounters 
as this our History may meet withal, I would have 

1The MS of Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana is now owned by the 
Massachusetts Historical Society. 

2 “Discussion about myself.” 

3“ He will give great things, who is able; for me, who am able to 
do little, and who ask for little, it is enough to have given a little.” 


4“O little book, though I envy, you, not I, shall go forth to the 
world,” 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 27 


worn the Silk-worms Motto, Operitur dum Operatur,} 
and have chosen to have written Anonymously; or, as 
Claudius Salmasius calls himself Walo Messalinus, 
as Ludovicus Molineus calls himself Ludiomeus Col- 
vinus, as Carolus Scribanius calls himself Clarus Bonar- 
scius, (and no less Men than Peter du Moulin, and Dr. 
Henry More, stile themselves, the one Hi1ppolytus 
Fronto, the other Franciscus Paleopolitanus.)* Thus 
I would have tried, whether I could not have Anagram- 
matized my Name into some Concealment; or I would 
have referr’d it to be found in the second Chapter of 
the second Syntagm of Selden de Diis Syris.2 Whereas 
now I freely confess, ’tis COTTON MATHER that 


has written all these things; 
Me, mé, ad sum qui scripsi; in me convertite Ferrum.* 


I hope ’tis a right Work that I have done; but we are 
not yet arrived unto the Day, wherein God will bring 
every Work into Judgment (the Day of the Kingdom 
that was promised unto David) and a Son of David 
hath as Truly as Wisely told us, that until the arrival 
of that Happy Day, this is one of the Vanities attendinz 
Humane Affairs; For a right Work a Man shall be 
envied of his Neighbour. It will not be so much a Surprise 
unto me, if I should live to see our Church-History 
vexed with Anie-mad-versions of Calumnious Writers, 


1 “Tt is hidden while it works.” 

2Louis Molinzus, or Moulin, was an English physician, born 
about 1603; Charles Scribani, or Scribanius, was a Jesuit historian, 
living 1561-1629; Peter du Moulin was an English theologian, and 
Henry More was one of the English “ Cambridge Platonists.” 

3 The name Mather occurs in the book of John Selden referred to 
(p. 165 of the London 1617 edition). 

4“Tt is I who have written; turn the sword against me.” This is an 
alteration of the 4neid, ix, 427. 


28 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


as it would have been unto Virgil, to read his Bucolicks 
reproached by the 4 ntibucolica of a Nameless Scribbler, 
and his Aneids travestied by the netdomastix of 
Carbilius: Or Herennius taking pains to make a Col- 
lection of the Faults, and Faustinus of the Thefts, in 
his incomparable Composures: Yea, Pliny, and Seneca 
themselves, and our Jerom, reproaching him, as a 
Man of no Judgment, nor Skill in Sciences; while 
Pedianus affirms of him, that he was himself, Usque 
adeo invidie Expers, ut s1 quid erudite dictum ins piceret 
alterius, non minus gauderet ac sit suum esset.1 How 
should a Book, no better laboured than this of ours, 
escape Zoilian? Outrages, when in all Ages, the most 
exquisite Works have been as much vilified, as Plato’s 
by Scaliger, and Aristotle's by Lactantius? -In the 
time of our K. Edward VI. there was an Order to bring 
in all the Teeth of St. Apollonia, which the People of 
his one Kingdom carried about them for the Cure of 
the Tooth ach; and they were so many, that they almost 
fill’da Tun. Truly Envy hath as many Teeth as Madam 
Apollonia would have had, if all those pretended Re- 
liques had been really hers. And must all these Teeth 
be fastned on thee, O my Book? It may be so! And 
yet the Book, when ground between these Teeth, will 
prove like Ignatius in the Teeth of the furious Tygers, 
The whiter Manchet for the Churches of God. The greatest 
and fiercest Rage of Envy, is that which I expect 
from those IDUMAZANS, whose Religion is all Cere- 


mony, and whose Charity is more for them who deny 


1“Ever so very free of envy, that when he examined anything 
learnedly written by another, he was not less delighted than as if it 
were his own.” 

? Zoilus, a fourth century Greek rhetorician, so severely criticized 
Homer as to be known as the “ Scourge of Homer.” 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 29 


the most Essential things in the Articles and Homilies 
of the Church of England, than for the most Conscien- 
tious Men in the World, who manifest their being so, 
by their Dissent in some little Ceremony: Or those 
Persons whose Hearts are notably expressed in those 
words used by one of them [’tis Howel in his Familiar 
Letters, Vol. 1. Sect. 6. Lett. 32.] I rather pitty, than 
hate, Turk or Infidel, for they are of the same Metal, 
and bear the same Stamp, as I do, tho’ the I NSCTIPtions 
differ; If I hate any, ’tis those Schismaticks that puzzle 
the sweet Peace of our Church; so that I could be content 
to see an Anabaptist go to Hell on a Brownists Back. 
The Writer whom I last quoted, hath given us a Story 
of a young Man in High-Holbourn, who being after his 
death Dissected, there was a Serpent with divers tails, 
found in the left Ventricle of his Heart. I make no 
question, that our Church-History will find some 
Reader disposed like that Writer, with an Heart as 
full of Serpent and Venom as ever it can hold: Nor 
indeed will they be able to hold, but the Tongues and 
Pens of those angry Folks, will scourge me as with 
Scorpions, and cause me to feel (if I will feel) as many 
Lashes as Cornelius Agrippa expected from their 


Brethren, for the Book in which he exposed their Vani- __ 


ties.2 A Scholar of the great JUELS, made once about 
fourscore Verses, for which the Censor of Corpus 
Christi Colledge in the beginning of Queen Maries Reign, 
publickly and cruelly scourged him, with one Lash 


‘The Brownists were those who followed the beliefs of Robert 
Brown—in general, they were the more extreme Independents among 
the English Puritans. The Puritans in New England objected to 
being identified with the Brownists. (Cf. page 48 post). 

* Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, 1487-1535, published in 1531 his 
De Vanitate et Incertitude Scientiarum, which brought him into 
difficulties with the Inquisition. 


ered 


30 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


for every Verse.! Now in those Verses, the young 
Man’s Prayers to the Lord JESUS CHRIST, have 


this for part of the answer given to them. 


Respondet Dominus, spectans de sedibus altis, 
Ne dubites recte credere, parve puer. 

Olim sum passus mortem, nunc occupo dextram 
Patris, nunc summt1 sunt mea regna poll. 

Sed tu, crede mihi, vires Scriptura resumet, 
Tolleturque suo tempore missa nequam. 


In English. 


The Lord beholding from his Throne, reply’d, 
Doubt not, O Youth, firmly in me confide. 

I dy’d long since, now sit at the Right Hand 
Of my bless’d Father, and the World command. 
Believe me, Scripture shall regain her sway, 
And wicked Mass in due time fade away. 


Reader, I also expect nothing but Scourges from that 
Generation, to whom the Mass book is dearer than the 
Bible. But I have now likewise confessed another 
Expectation, that shall be my Consolation under all. 
They tell us, That on the highest of the Caspian Moun- 
tains in Spain, there is a Lake, whereinto if you throw 
a Stone, there presently ascends a Smoke, which forms 
a dense Cloud, from whence issues a Tempest of Rain, 
Hail, and horrid Thunder-claps, for a good quarter 
of an hour. Our Church-History will be like a Stone 
cast into that Lake, for the furious Tempest which it 
will raise among some, whose Ecclesiastical Dignities 
have set them, as on the top of Spanish Mountains. 


1 Bishop John Jewel of Salisbury, 1522-1571. His scholar here 
referred to was a certain Edward Year. 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 31 


The Catholick Spirit of Communion wherewith ’tis 
written, and the Liberty which I have taken, to tax 
the Schismatical Impositions and Persecutions of a 
Party, who have always been as real Enemies to the 
English Nation, as to the Christian and Protestant 
Interest, will certainly bring upon the whole Compo- 
sure, the quick Censures of that Party, at the first cast 
of their look upon it. In the Duke of Alva’s Council 
of twelve Judges, there was one Hessels a Flemming, 
who slept always at the Trial of Criminals, and when 
they wak’d him to deliver his Opinion, he rub’d_ his 
Eyes, and cry’d between sleeping and waking, Ad 
patibulum! ad Patibulum! ‘To the Gallows with ’em! 
[And, by the way, this Blade was himself, at the last, 
condemned unto the Gallows, without an Hearing!) 
As quick Censures must this our Labour expect from 
those who will not bestow waking thoughts upon the 
Representations of Christianity here made unto the 
World; but have a Sentence of Death always to pass, 
or at least, Wish, upon those Generous Principles, 
without which, ’tis impossible to maintain the Refor- 
mation: And I confess, I am very well content, that 
this our Labour takes the Fate of those Principles: 
Nor do I dissent from the words of the Excellent 
Whitaker upon Luther, Felix ille, quem Dominus eo 
Honore dignatus est, ut Homines nequissimos suos 
haberet inimicos.! But if the old Epigrammatist, when 
he saw Guilty Folks raving Mad at his Lines, could 


say 





Hoc volo; nunc nobis carmina nostra placent? 


1“ Happy is he, whom God has deemed worthy of the honor that 
he may have the worst of men for his enemies.” 
2 “This is what I wish; now my songs please me.” 


oe MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Certainly an Historian should not be displeased at it, 
if the Enemies of Truth discover their Madness at the 
true and free Communications of his History: and 
therefore the more Stones they throw at this Book, 
there will not only be the more Proofs, that it is a Tree 
which hath good Fruits growing upon it, but I will 
build my self a Monument with them, whereon shall 
be inscribed, that Clause in the Epitaph of the Martyr 
Stephen: 


Excepit Lapides, cut petra Christus erat: ! 


Albeit perhaps the Epitaph, which the old Monks 
bestow’d upon Wickliff, will be rather endeavour’d 
for me, (Jf I am thought worth one!)? by the Men, who 
will, with all possible Monkery, strive to stave off the 
approaching Reformation. 

But since an Undertaking of this Nature, must 
thus encounter so much Envy, from those who are 
under the Power of the Spirit that works in the Children 
of Unperswadeableness, methinks [I might perswade 
my self, that it will find another sort of Entertainment 
from those Good Men who have a better Spirit in them: 
For, as the Apostle James hath noted, (so with Monsieur 
Claude I read it) The Spirit that is in us, lusteth against 
Envy; and yet even in us also, there will be the Flesh, 
among whose Works, one is Envy, which will be Lusting 
against the Spirit. All Good Men will not be satisfied 
with every thing that is here set before them. In my 
own Country, besides a considerable number of loose 


1Mr. Robinson, in the 1855 reprint of the Magnalia, translates 
this, “He died by stoning, but his Rock was Christ.” 

* Wycliffe was reviled by many after his death, his books were 
burned, and his body later exhumed. Speed’s History of Great Britaine 
(1611), p. 610, § 118, prints an epitaph bestowed on him by a monk. 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 33 


and vain Inhabitants risen up, to whom the Congre- 
gational Church-Discipline, which cannot Live well, 
where the Power of Godliness dyes, is become distastful 
for the Purity of it; there is also a number of eminently 
Godly Persons, who are for a Larger way, and unto 
these my Church-History will give distast, by the 
things which it may happen to utter, in favour of that 
Church-Discipline on some few occasions; and the 
Discoveries which I may happen to make of my Appre- 
hensions, that Scripture, and Reason, and Antiquity 
is for it; and that it is not far from a glorious Resurrec- 
tion. But that, as the Famous Mr. Baxter, after Thirty 
or Forty Years hard Study, about the true Instituted 
Church-Discipline, at last, not only own’d, but also 
invincibly prov’d, That it is The Congregational; so, 
The further that the Unprejudiced Studies of Learned 
Men proceed in this Matter, the more generally the 
Congregational Church-Discipline will be pronounced 
for. On the other side, There are some among us, who 
very strictly profess the Congregational Church-Disci- 
pline, but at the same time they have an unhappy 
Narrowness of Soul, by which they confine their value 
and Kindness too much unto their own Party; and 
unto those my Church History will be offensive, because 
my Regard unto our own declared Principles, does not 
hinder me from giving the Right-hand of Fellowship 
unto the valuable Servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who find not our Church-Discipline as yet agreeable 
unto their present Understandings and Illuminations. 
If it be thus in my own Country, it cannot be other 
wise in That whereto I send this account of my own. 
Briefly, as it hath been said, That if all Episcopal 
Men were like Archbishop Usher, and all Presbyterians 
like Stephen Marshal, and all Independents like Jeremiah 


34 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Burroughs, the Wounds of the Church would soon 
be healed;! my Essay to carry that Spirit through this 
whole Church-History, will bespeak Wounds for it, 
from those that are of another Spirit. And there will 
also be in every Country those Good Men, who yet 
have not had the Grace of Christ so far prevailing in 
them, as utterly to divest them of that piece of IIl 
Nature which the Comedian resents, In homine Imperito, 
quo nil quicquam Injustius, quia nisi quod ipse facit, 
nil recte factum putat.” 

However, All these things, and an hundred more 
such things which I think of, are very small Discourage- 
ments for such a Service as I have here endeavoured. 
I foresee a Recompence, which will abundantly swallow 
up all Discouragements! It may be Strato the Philoso- 
pher counted himself well recompensed for his Labours, 
when Ptolomy bestow’d fourscore Talents on him. It 
may be Archimelus the Poet counted himself well 
recompensed, when Hero sent him a thousand Bushels 
of Wheat for one little Epigram: And Saletus the 
Poet might count himself well recompensed, when 
Vespasian sent him twelve thousand and five hundred 
Philippicks; and Oppian the Poet might count himself 
well recompensed, when Caracalla sent him a piece 
of Gold for every Line that he had inscribed unto him. 
As I live in a Country where such Recompences never 
were in fashion; it hath no Preferments for me, 
and I shall count that I am well Rewarded in it, if I 
can escape without being heavily Reproached, Cen- 


1 James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, an Anglican, liberal toward 
Puritanism, 1581-1656; Marshall, 1594?-1655, and Burroughs, 1599- 
1646, were men of breadth of view and wide influence. 

2 “Nothing is more unjust than an inexperienced man, who thinks 
nothing is right except what he has done himself.” (Terence, Adelphi, 


ll. 98-99.) 


A GENERAL INTRODUCTION 36 


sured and Condemned, for what I have done: So I 
thank the Lord, I should exceedingly Scorn all such 
mean Considerations, I seek not out for Benefactors, 
to whom these Labours may be Dedicated: There is 
ONE to whom all is due! From Him I shall have a 
Recompence: And what Recompence? The Recom- 
pence, whereof I do, with inexpressible Joy, assure 
my self, is this, That these my poor Labours will certainly 
serve the Churches and Interests of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
And I think I may say, That I ask to live no longer, 
than I count a Service unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
his Churches, to be it self a glorious Recompence for 
the doing of it. When David was contriving to build 
the House of God, there was that order given from 
Heaven concerning him, Go tell David, my Servant. 
The adding of that more than Royal Title unto the Name 
of David, was a sufficient Recompence for all his Con- 
trivance about the House of God. In our whole Church- 
History, we have been at work for the House of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, [Even that Man who is the Lord 
God, and whose Form seems on that occasion represented 
unto His David] And herein ’tis Recompence enough, 
that I have been a Servant unto that heavenly Lord. 
The greatest Honour, and the sweetest Pleasure, out 
of Heaven, is to Serve our Illustrious Lord JESUS 
CHRIST, who hath loved us, and given himself for us; 
and unto whom it is infinitely reasonable that we should 
give our selves, and all that we have and Are: And it 
may be the Angels in Heaven too, aspire not after an 
higher Felicity. 


Unto thee, therefore, O thou Son of God, and King of 
Heaven, and Lord of all things, whom all the Glorious 
Angels of Light, unspeakably love to Glorifie; [ humbly 


36 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


offer up a poor History of Churches, which own thee alone 
for their Head, and Prince, and Law-giver; Churches 
which thou hast purchas’d with thy own Blood, and with 
wonderful Dispensations of thy Providence hitherto 
protected and preserved; and of a People which thou didst 
Form for thy self, to shew forth thy Praises. I bless thy 
great Name, for thy tnclining of me to, and carrying of 
me through, the Work of this Htstory: I pray thee to 
sprinkle the Book of this History with thy Blood, and make 
it acceptable and profitable unto thy Churches, and serve 
thy Truths and Ways among thy People, by that which 
thou hast here prepared; for ’tis THOU that hast prepar’d 
it for them. Amen. 


Quid sum? Nil. Quits sum? Nullus. Sed Gratia 
CHRISTI, 
Quod sum, quod Vivo, quodque Laboro, facit.! 


1“WhatamI? Nothing. WhoamI? Noone. But the Grace of 
Christ makes what I am, my life, and what I do.” 


MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 
BOOK II 
ECCLESIARUM CLYPEI.' 


The Second Book of the New English History Con- 
taining The Lives Of The Governours, and the Names 
of the Magistrates, that have been Shields unto the 
Churches of New-England, (until the Year 1686.) 
Perpetuated by the Essay of Cotton Mather. 


INTRODUCTION 


English Translation of that Wicked Position in 

Machiavel, Non requiri in Principe veram pieta- 
tem, sed sufficere illius quandam umbram, & simula- 
tionem Externam.”? It may be there never was any Region 
under Heaven happier than poor New-England hath 
been in Magistrates, whose True Piety was worthy to 
be made the Example of After-Ages. 

Happy hast thou been, O Land! in Magistrates, 
whose Disposition to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, unto 
whom they still considered themselves accountable, answered 
the good Rule of Agapetus,? Quo quis in Republica 


ch: ERE to be wish'd that there might never be any 


1 “Shields of the churches.” 

2“Tn a prince, true piety is not required; a certain shadow and 
external likeness of it suffices.” 

3 “The higher rank one attains in the state, the more submissively 
one should live before God.” Agapetus, a deacon of the church of 
Constantinople in the sixth century, wrote a letter to the Emperor 
Justinian on the duties of a prince. 


37 


38 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Majorem Dignitatis gradum adeptus est, eo Deum 
Colat Submissius: Magistrates, whose Disposition to 
serve the People that chose them to Rule over them, argued 
them sensible of that great Stroak in Cicero, Nulla Re 
propius Homines ad Deum Accedunt, quam salute 
Hominibus danda:! Magistrates, acted 7 1n their Adminis- 
trations by the Spirit of a Joshua. When the Wise 
Man observes unto us, That Oppressions makes a Wise 
Man Mad, it may be worth considering, whether the 
Oppressor 15 not intended rather than the Oppressed in 
the Observation. ’Tis very certain that a Disposition to 
Oppress other Men, does often make those that are other- 
wise very Wise Men, to forget the Rules of Reason, and 
commit most Unreasonable Exorbitancies. Rehoboam 
in some things acted wisely; but this Admonition of his 
Inspired Father could not restrain him from acting madly, 
when the Spirit of Oppression was upon him. The 
Rulers of New-England have been Wise Men, whom that 
Spirit of Oppression betray’d not into this Madness. 

The Father of Vhemistocles disswading him from 
Government, show’d him the Old Oars which the Marriners 
had now thrown away upon the Sea-shores with Neglect 
and Contempt; and said, That People would certainly 
treat their Old Rulers with the same Contempt. But, 
Reader, let us now take up our Old Oars with all possible 
Respect, and see whether we can’t still make use of them 
to serve our little Vessel. But this the rather, because we 
may with an easie turn change the Name into that of 
Pilots. 

The Word GOVERNMENT, properly signifies the 
Guidance of a Ship: Tully uses it for that purpose; and in 


1“Tn nothing do men come nearer to God, than in giving safety 
to men.” 
2 7.¢., actuated. 


INTRODUCTION 39 


Plutarch, the Art of Steering a Ship, is, Teyvn xuBep- 
vettKn. New-England 1s a little Ship, which hath 
Weathered many a Terrible Storm; and it 15 but reasonable 
that they who have sat at the Helm of the Ship, should 
be remembred in the History of tts Deliverances. 

Prudentius! calls Judges, The Great Lights of the 
Sphere; Symmachus? calls Judges, The better part of 
Mankind. Reader, Thou are now to be entertained with 
the Lives of Judges which have deserved that Character. 
And the Lives of those who have been called, Speaking 
Laws, will excuse our History from coming under the 
Observation made about the Works of Homer, That the 
Word, LAW, 1s never so much as once occurring 1n them. 
They are not written like the Cyrus of Xenophon, like 
the Alexander of Curtius, like Virgil’s AXneas, and like 
Pliny’s Trajan: But the Reader hath in every one of them 
a Real and a Faithful History. And I please my self 
with hopes, that there will yet be found among the Sons of 
New-England, those Young Gentlemen by whom the 
Copies given in this History will be written after; and 
that saying of Old Chaucer be remembred, To do the 
Genteel Deeds, that makes the Gentleman.? 


1 Prudentius, the chief Christian poet of the early Church, lived 
about 400 A. D. 

?Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman politician and orator, 
lived about 400 A. D. 

3 A paraphrase of familiar lines in Chaucer’s “‘ Wife of Bath’s Tale.” 


40 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


CHATS 


Galeacius Secundus.! The LIFE of WILLIAM BRAD- 
FORD, Esq; Governour of PLYMOUTH COLONY. 


Omnium Somnos, illius vigilantia defendit, omnium 
otium illius Labor, omnium Delitias illius Industria, 
omnium vacationem tllius occupatio.” 


§ 1. WT has been a Matter of some Observation, that 
| although Yorkshire be one of the largest Shires 

in England, yet, for all the Fires of Martyrdom 

which were kindled in the Days of Queen Mary, it 
afforded no more Fuel than one poor Leaf; namely, 
John Leaf, an Apprentice, who suffered for the Doc- 
trine of the Reformation at the same Time and Stake 
with the Famous John Bradford. But when the Reign 
of Queen Elizabeth would not admit the Refor- 
mation of Worship to proceed unto those Degrees, 
which were proposed and pursued by no small num- 
ber of the Faithful in those Days, Yorkshire was 
not the least of the Shires in England that afforded 
Suffering Witnesses thereunto. The Churches there 
gathered were quickly molested with such a raging 
Persecution, that if the Spirit of Separation in them did 
carry them unto a further Extream than it should have 
done, one blameable Cause thereof will be found in the 
Extremity of that Persecution. Their Troubles made 
that Cold Country too Hot for them, so that they were 
under a necessity to seek a Retreat in the Low Countries; 
and yet the watchful Malice and Fury of their Ad- 


1 “The second helmet wearer.” 
2 “His vigilance defends the sleep of all; his labor, their rest; his 
industry, their pleasures; and his diligence, their leisure.” 


WILLIAM BRADFORD 41 


versaries rendred it almost impossible for them to 
find what they sought. For them to leave their Native 
Soil, their Lands and their Friends, and go into a Strange 
Place, where they must hear Forreign Language, and 
live meanly and hardly, and in other Imployments than 
that of Husbandry, wherein they had been Educated, 
these must needs have been such Discouragements as 
could have been Conquered by none, save those who 
sought first the Kingdom of God, and the Righteousness 
thereof. But that which would have made these Dis- 
couragements the more Unconquerable unto an ordi- 
nary Faith, was the terrible Zeal of their Enemies to 
Guard all Ports, and Search all Ships, that none of 
them should be carried off. I will not relate the sad 
things of this kind, then seen and felt by this People of 
God; but only exemplifie those Trials with one short 
Story. Divers of this People having Hired a Dutch- 
man then lying at Hull, to carry them over to Holland, 
he promised faithfully to take them in between Grimsly 
and Hull;' but they coming to the Place a Day or Two 
too soon, the appearance of such a Multitude alarmed 
the Officers of the Town adjoining, who came with a 
great Body of Soldiers to seize upon them. Now it 
happened that one Boat full of Men had been carried 
Aboard, while the Women were yet in a Bark that lay 
Aground in a Creek at Low-Water. The Dutchman 
perceiving the Storm that was thus beginning Ashore, 
swore by the Sacrament that he would stay no longer 
for any of them; and so taking the Advantage of a 
Fair Wind then Blowing, he put out to Sea for Zealand. 
The Women thus left near Grimsly-Common, bereaved 
of their Husbands, who had been hurried from them, 
and forsaken of their Neighbours, of whom none durst 


1 J.e., Grimsby. 


42 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


in this Fright stay with them, were a very rueful Spec- 
tacle; some crying for Fear, some shaking for Cold, 
all dragg’d by Troops of Armed and Angry Men from 
one Justice to another, till not knowing what to do 
with them, they e’en dismiss’d them to shift as well 
as they could for themselves. But by their singular 
Afflictions, and by their Christian Behaviours, the 
Cause for which they exposed themselves did gain 
considerably. In the mean time, the Men at Sea found 
Reason to be glad that their Families were not with 
them, for they were surprized with an horrible Tempest, 
which held them for Fourteen Days together, in Seven 
whereof they saw not Sun, Moon, or Star, but were 
driven upon the Coast of Norway. The Mariners 
often despaired of Life, and once with doleful shrieks 
gave over all, as thinking the Vessel was Foundred: 
But the Vessel rose again, and when The Mariners 
with sunk Hearts often cried out, We Sink! We Sink! 
The Passengers without such Distraction of Mind, 
even while the Water was running into their Mouths 
and Ears, would chearfully Shout, Yet Lord, thou 
canst save! Yet Lord, thou canst save! And the Lord 
accordingly brought them at last safe unto their Desired 
Haven: And not long after helped their Distressed 
Relations thither after them, where indeed they found 
upon almost all Accounts a new World, but a World 
in which they found that they must live like Strangers 
and Pilgrims. 

§ 2. Among those Devout People was our William 
Bradford, who was Born Anno 1588.1 in an obscure 
Village call’d Ansterfield,? where the People were as 
unacquainted with the Bible, as the Jews do seem to 

1 March 19, 1588-89. 

2 Austerfield. 


WILLIAM BRADFORD 43 


have been with part of it in the Days of Jostah; a most 
Ignorant and Licentious People, and Itke unto their 
Priest. Here, and in some other Places, he had a 
Comfortable Inheritance left him of his Honest ‘Parents, 
who died while he was yet a Child, and cast him on the 
Education, first of his Grand Parents, and then of his 
Uncles, who devoted him, like his Ancestors, unto 
the Affairs of Husbandry. Soon and long Sickness 
kept him, as he would afterwards thankfully say, 
from the Vanities of Youth, and made him the fitter 
for what he was afterwards to undergo. When he was 
about a Dozen Years Old, the Reading of the Scriptures 
began to cause great Impressions upon him; and those 
Impressions were much assisted and improved, when 
he came to enjoy Mr. Richard Clifton’s' Uluminating 
Ministry, not far from his Abode; he was then also 
further befriended, by being brought into the Company 
and Fellowship of such as were then called Professors ,;? 
though the Young Man that brought him into it, did 
after become a Prophane and Wicked Apostate. Nor 
could the Wrath of his Uncles, nor the Scoff of his 
Neighbours now turn’d upon him, as one of the Puritans, 
divert him from his Pious Inclinations. 

§ 3. At last beholding how fearfully the Evangelical 
and Apostolical Church-Form, whereinto the Churches 
of the Primitive Times were cast by the good Spirit of 
God, had been Deformed by the A postacy of the Succeed- 
ing Times; and what little Progress the Reformation 
had yet made in many Parts of Christendom towards 
its Recovery, he set himself by Reading, by Discourse, 
by Prayer, to learn whether it was not his Duty to 


1 Richard Clifton, a Puritan, minister at Scrooby and later in 
Amsterdam. He died in 1610. 
2 I. ¢., those who professed to have religious faith. 


44 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


withdraw from the Communion of the Parish-Assemblies, 
and engage with some Society of the F aithful, that 
should keep close unto the Written Word of God, as 
the Rule of their Worship. And after many Distresses 
of Mind concerning it, he took up a very Deliberate 
and Understanding Resolution of doing so; which 
Resolution he chearfully Prosecuted, although the 
provoked Rage of his Friends tried all the ways imagin- 
able to reclaim him from it, unto all whom his Answer 
was, Were I like to endanger my Life, or consume my 
Estate by any ungodly Courses, your Counsels to me 
were very seasonable: But you know that I have been 
Diligent and Provident in my Calling, and not only 
desirous to augment what I have, but also to enjoy it in 
your Company; to part from which will be as great a 
Cross as can befal me. Nevertheless, to keep a good 
Conscience, and walk in such a Way as God has prescribed 
in his Word, is a thing which I must prefer before you 
all, and above Life it self. Wherefore, since ’tis for a 
good Cause that I am like to suffer the Disasters which 
you lay before me, you have no Cause to be either angry 
with me, or sorry for me; yea, I am not only willing to 
part with every thing that 1s dear to me in this World 
for this Cause, but I am also thankful that God has given 
me an Heart so to do, and will accept me so to suffer for 
him. Some lamented him, some derided him, all dis- 
swaded him: Nevertheless the more they did it, the 
more fixed he was in his Purpose to seek the Ordinances 
of the Gospel, where they should be dispensed with 
most of the Commanded Purity; and the sudden Deaths 
of the chief Relations which thus lay at him, quickly 
after convinced him what a Folly it had been to have 
quitted his Profession, in Expectation of any Satisfaction 
from them. So to Holland he attempted a removal. 


WILLIAM BRADFORD 46 


§4. Having with a great Company of Christians 
Hired a Ship to Transport them for Holland, the Master 
perfidiously betrayed them into the Hands of those 
Persecutors, who -Rifled and Ransack’d their Goods, 
and clapp’d their Persons into Prison at Boston, where 
they lay for a Month together. But Mr. Bradford 
being a Young Man of about Eighteen, was dismissed 
sooner than the rest, so that within a while he had 
Opportunity with some others to get over to Zealand, 
through Perils both by Land and Sea not inconsiderable; 
where he was not long Ashore e’re a Viper seized on 
his Hand, that is, an Officer, who carried him unto the 
Magistrates, unto whom an envious Passenger had 
accused him as having fled out of England. When the 
Magistrates understood the True Cause of his coming 
thither, they were well satisfied with him; and so he 
repaired joyfully unto his Brethren at Amsterdam, 
where the Difficulties to which he afterwards stooped 
in Learning and Serving of a Frenchman at the Working 
of Silks, were abundantly Compensated by the Delight 
wherewith he sat under the Shadow of our Lord in 
his purely dispensed Ordinances.! At the end of Two 
Years, he did, being of Age to do it, convert his Estate 
in England into Money; but Setting up for himself, 
he found some of his Designs by the Providence of God 
frowned upon, which he judged a Correction bestowed 
by God upon him for certain Decays of Internal Prety, 
whereinto he had fallen; the Consumption of his Estate 
he thought came to prevent a Consumption in his 
Virtue. But after he had resided in Holland about half 
a Score Years, he was one of those who bore a part in 


1W. C. Ford, in his edition of Bradford’s History (Boston, 1912), 
i, 37n., says that the foregoing anecdote probably represents a tradi- 
tion current in Mather’s tise. 


46 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


that Hazardous and Generous Enterprize of removing 
into New-England, with part of the English Church at 
Leyden, where at their first Landing, his dearest Consort 
accidentally falling Overboard, was drowned in the 
Harbour; and the rest of his Days were spent in the 
Services, and the Temptations, of that American 
Wilderness. 

§c. Here was Mr. Bradford in the Year 1621. 
Unanimously chosen the Governour of the Plantation: 
The Difficulties whereof were such, that if he had not 
been a Person of more than Ordinary Piety, Wisdom 
and Courage, he must have sunk under them. He 
had with a Laudable Industry been laying up a Treas- 
ure of Experiences, and he had now occasion to use 
it: Indeed nothing but an Experienced Man could have 
been suitable to the Necessities of the People. The 
Potent Nations of the Jndians, into whose Country 
they were come, would have cut them off, if the Blessing 
of God upon his Conduct had not quell’d them; and 
if his Prudence, Justice and Moderation had not over- 
ruled them, they had been ruined by their own Di1s- 
tempers. One Specimen of his Demeanour is to this 
Day particularly spoken of. A Company of Young 
Fellows that were newly arrived, were very unwilling 
to comply with the Governour’s Order for Working 
abroad on the Publick Account; and therefore on Christ- 
mass-Day, when he had called upon them, they excused 
themselves, with a pretence that it was against their 
Conscience to Work such a Day. The Governour gave 
them no Answer, only that he would spare them till 
they were better informed; but by and by he found 
them all at Play in the Street, sporting themselves with 
various Diversions; whereupon Commanding the In- 
struments of their Games to be taken from them, he 


WILLIAM BRADFORD 47 


effectually gave them to understand, That 1t was against 
his Conscience that they should play whilst others were at 
Work; and that 1f they had any Devotion to the Day, they 
should show 1t at Home in the Exercises of Religion, and 
not in the Streets with Pastime and Frolicks; and this 
gentle Reproof put a final stop to all such Disorders 
for the future. 

§6. For Two Years together after the beginning 
of the Colony, whereof he was now Governour, the 
poor People had a great Experiment of Man’s not living 
by Bread alone; for when they were left all together 
without one Morsel of Bread for many Months one 
after another, still the good Providence of God relieved 
them, and supplied them, and this for the most part 
out of the Sea. In this low Condition of Affairs, there 
was no little Exercise for the Prudence and Patience 
of the Governour, who chearfully bere his part in all: 
And that Industry might not flag, he quickly set him- 
self to settle Propriety! among the New-Planters; 
foreseeing that while the whole Country labour’d upon 
a Common Stock, the Husbandry and Business of the 
Plantation could not flourish, as Plato and others long 
since dream’d that it would, if a Community were 
established. Certainly, if the Spirit which dwelt in the 
Old Puritans, had not inspired these New-Planters, 
they had sunk under the Burden of these Difficulties; 
but our Bradford had a double Portion of that Spirit. 

§7. The Plantation was quickly thrown into a 
Storm that almost overwhelmed it, by the unhappy 
Actions of a Minister sent over from England by the 
Adventurers concerned for the Plantation; but by 
the Blessing of Heaven on the Conduct of the Govern- 
our, they Weathered out that Storm. Only the Ad- 

1]. ¢., property. 


48 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


venturers hereupon breaking to pieces, threw up all 
their Concernments with the /nfant Colony; where- 
of they gave this as one Reason, That the Planters 
dissembled with His Majesty, and their Friends in their 
Petition, wherein they declared for a Church-Discipline, 
agreeing with the French and others of the Reforming 
Churches in Europe. Whereas ’twas now urged, that 
they had admitted into their Communion a Person, 
who at his Admission utterly renounced the Churches 
of England, (which Person by the way, was that very 
Man who had made the Complaints against them) 
and therefore though they denied the Name of Browntsts 
yet they were the Thing. In Answer hereunto, the 
very Words written by the Governour were these; 
Whereas you Tax us with dissembling about the French 
Discipline, you do us wrong, for we both hold and practice 
the Discipline of the French and other Reformed Churches 
(as they have published the same in the Harmony of 
Confessions) according to our Means, in Effect and Sub- 
stance. But whereas you would tie us up to the French 
Discipline in every Circumstance, you derogate from the 
Liberty we have in Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul 
would have none to follow him in any thing, but wherein 
he follows Christ; much less ought any Christian or 
Church in the World to do it. The French may err, we 
may err, and other Churches may err, and doubtless do 
in many Circumstances. That Honour therefore belongs 
only to the Infallible Word of God, and pure Testament 
of Christ, to be propounded and followed as the only 
Rule and Pattern for Direction herein to all Churches 
and Christians. And it is too great Arrogancy for any 
Men or Church to think, that he or they have so sounded 
the Word of God unto the bottom, as precisely to set down 
the Churches Discipline without Error in Substance or 


WILLIAM BRADFORD 49 


Circumstance, that no other without blame may digress 
or differ in any thing from the same. And it is not difficult 
to shew that the Reformed Churches differ in many 
Circumstances among themselves. By which Words 
it appears how far he was free from that Rigid Spirit 
of Separation, which broke to pieces the Separatists 
themselves in the Low Countries, unto the great Scandal 
of the Reforming Churches. He was indeed a Person 
of a well-temper’d Spirit, or else it had been scarce 
possible for him to have kept the Affairs of Plymouth 
in so good a Temper for Thirty Seven Years together; 
in every one of which he was chosen their Governour, 
except the Three Years, wherein Mr. Winslow, and the 
Two Years, wherein Mr. Prince, at the choice of the 
People, took a turn with him. 

§8. The Leader of a People in a Wilderness had 
need be a Moses; and if a Moses had not led the People 
of Plymouth-Colony, when this Worthy Person was 
their Governour, the People had never with so much 
Unanimity and Importunity still called him to lead 
them. Among many Instances thereof, let this one 
piece of Se/f dental be told for a Memorial of him, where- 
soever this History shall be considered. The Patent of 
the Colony was taken in his Name, running in these 
Terms, To William Bradford, his Heirs, Associates and 
Assigns: But when the number of the Freemen was 
much Increased, and many New Townships Erected, 
the General Court there desired of Mr. Bradford, that 
he would make a Surrender of the same into their Hands, 
which he willingly and presently assented unto, and 
confirmed it according to their Desire by his Hand 
and Seal, reserving no more for himself than was his 
Proportion, with others, by Agreement. But as he found 
the Providence of Heaven many ways Recompencing 


50 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


his many Acts of Self-denial, so he gave this Testimony 
to the Faithfulness of the Divine Promises; That he 
had forsaken Friends, Houses and Lands for the sake of 
the Gospel, and the Lord gave them him again. Here he 
prospered in his Estate; and besides a Worthy Son 
which he had by a former Wife, he had also Two Sons 
and a Daughter by another, whom he Married in this 
Land. 

§9. He was a Person for Study as well as Action; 
and hence, notwithstanding the Difficulties through 
which he passed in his Youth, he attained unto a 
notable Skill in Languages; the Dutch Tongue was 
become almost as Vernacular to him as the English; 
the French Tongue he could also manage; the Latin 
and the Greek he had Mastered; but the Hebrew he 
most of all studied, Because, he said, he would see with 
his own Eyes the Ancient Oracles of God in their Native 
Beauty. He was also well skill’d in History, in Antiquity, 
and in Philosophy; and for Theology he became so 
versed in it, that he was an Irrefragable Disputant 
against the Errors, especially those of Anabaptism, 
which with Trouble he saw rising in his Colony; where- 
fore he wrote some Significant things for the Confuta- 
tion of those Errors. But the Crown of all was his 
Holy, Prayerful, Watchful and Fruitful Walk with God, 
wherein he was very Exemplary. 

§1o. At length he fell into an Indisposition of 
Body, which rendred him unhealthy for a whole Winter; 
and as the Spring advanced, his Health yet more 
declined; yet he felt himself not what he counted Sick, 
till one Day; in the Night after which, the God of 
Heaven so fill’d his Mind with Ineffable Consolations, 
that he seemed little short of Paul, rapt up unto the 
Unutterable Entertainments of Paradise. The next 


SUCCESSORS 51 


Morning he told his Friends, That the good Spirit of 
God had given him a Pledge of his Happiness in another 
World, and the First-fruits of his Eternal Glory: And 
on the Day following he died, May 9. 1657. in the 
69th Year of his Age. Lamented by all the Colonies 
of New-England, as a Common Blessing and Father 
to them all. 


O mthi st Similis Contingat Clausula Vite! 


Plato’s brief Description of a Governour, is all that 
I will now leave as his Character, in an 


EELEAEE: 
Nopevs Tpodds ayérns avOpwrivns.? 


MEN are but FLOCKS: BRADFORD beheld their Need, 
And long did them at once both Rule and Feed. 


CHAP. II. 
SUCCESSORS. 


Inter Omnia que Rempublicam, ejusq; felicittatem 
conservant, quid utilius, quid prestantius, quam Viros 
ad Magistratus gerendos Eligere, summa prudentia tf 
Virtute preditos, quig; ad Honores obtinendos, non 
Ambitione, non Largitionibus, sed Virtute 8 Modestia 
sibt parent adytum! 3 
1 “Oh, may a similar ending of life come to me.” 

2 “Shepherd and feeder of the human herd.” 

# “Among all the things which preserve the state, what is more use- 
ful or glorious, than to elect men to be magistrates who are equipped 
with the greatest prudence and virtue, and, in obtaining fame, 
prepare a shrine for themselves, not by ambition, nor by bribery, 
but by virtue and modesty.” 


y2 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


§ 1. HE Merits of Mr. Edward Winslow, the 

Son of Edward Winslow, Esq; of Draught- 
wich, in the Country of Worcester, obliged the Votes 
of the Plymouthean Colony (whereto he arrived in the 
Year 1624. after his Prudent and Faithful Dispatch 
of an Agency in England, on the behalf of that Infant 
Colony) to chuse him for many Years a Magistrate, 
and for Two or Three their Governour. ‘Travelling into 
the Low-Countries, he fell into Acquaintance with the 
English Church at Leyden, and joining himself to them, 
he Shipped himself with that part of them which first 
came over into America; from which time he was 
continually engaged in such extraordinary Actions, 
as the assistance of that People to encounter their 
more than ordinary Difficulties, called for. But their 
Publick Affairs then requiring an Agency of as wise a 
Man as the Country could find at Whitehall for them, 
he was again prevail’d withal in the Year 1635. to 
appear for them at the Council-board; and his appear- 
ance there proved as Effectual, as it was very Season- 
able, not only for the Colony of Plymouth, but for 
the Massachusets also, on very important Accounts. 
It was by the Blessing of God upon his wary and 
proper Applications, that the Attempts of many Adver- 
saries to overthrow the whole Settlement of New-Eng- 
land, were themselves wholly overthrown; and as a 
small Acknowledgment for his great Service therein, 
they did, upon his return again, chuse him their Gover- 
nour. But in the Year 1646. the place of Governour 
being reassumed by Mr. Bradford, the Massachuset- 
Colony Addressed themselves unto Mr. Winslow to 
take another Voyage for England, that he might there 
procure their Deliverance from the Designs of many 

1 Droitwich. 


SUCCESSORS 53 


Troublesome Adversaries that were Petitioning unto 
the Parliament against them; and this Hercules having 
been from his very early Days accustomed unto the 
crussing' of that sort of Serpents, generously undertook 
another Agency, wherein how many good Services he 
did for New-England, and with what Fidelity, Discre- 
tion, Vigour and Success he pursued the Interests of 
that Happy People, it would make a large History to 
relate, an History that may not now be expected until 
the Resurrection of the Just. After this he returned no 
more unto New-England; but being in great Favour 
with the greatest Persons then in the Nation, he fell 
into those Imployments wherein the whole Nation 
fared the better for him. At length he was imployed as 
one of the Grand Commissioners in the Expedition 
against Hispaniola, where a Disease (rendred yet 
more uneasie by his Dissatisfaction at the strange 
miscarriage of that Expedition) arresting him, he died 
between Domingo and Jamaica, on May 8. 1655. in 
the Sixty-first Year of his Life, and had his Body Hon- 
ourably committed unto the Sea. 

§ 2. Sometimes during the Life, but always after 
the Death of Governour Bradford, even until his own, 
Mr. Thomas Prince was chosen GOVERNOUR of 
Plymouth. He was a Gentleman whose Natural Parts 
exceeded his Acquired; but the want and worth of 
Acquired Parts was a thing so sensible unto him, that 
Plymouth perhaps never had a greater Mecenas of 
Learning in it: It was he that in spite of much Contra- 
diction, procured Revenues for the Support of Gram- 
mar-Schools in that Colony. About the time of Gover- 
nour Bradford’s Death, Religion it self had like to have 
died in that Colony, through a Libertine and Brownistick 

1 TJ. e., crushing. 


54 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Spirit then prevailing among the People, and a strange 
Disposition to Discountenance the Gospel-Ministry, 
by setting up the Gifts of Private Brethren in Opposition 
thereunto. The good People being in extream Distress 
from the Prospect which this matter gave to them, saw 
no way so likely and ready to save the Churches from 
Ruin, as by the Election of Mr. Prince to the place of 
Governour; and this Point being by the Gracious and 
Marvellous Providence of the Lord Jesus Christ gained 
at the next Election; the Adverse Party from that very 
time sunk into Confusion. He had Sojourned for a 
while at Eastham, where a Church was by his means 
gathered; but after this time he returned unto his 
former Scituation at Plymouth, where he resided until 
he died, which was March 29. 1673. when he was about 
Seventy-Three Years of Age: Among the many Excellent 
Qualities which adorned him as Governour of the Colony, 
there was much notice taken of that Integrity, where- 
with indeed he was most exemplarily qualified: Whence 
it was that as he ever would refuse any thing that 
look’d like a Bribe; so if any Person having a Case to 
be heard at Court, had sent a Present unto his Family 
in his absence, he would presently send back the value 
thereof in Money unto the Person. But had he been 
only a private Christian, there would yet have been 
seen upon him those Ornaments of Prayerfulness, and 
Peaceableness, and profound Resignation to the Conduct 
of the Word of God, and a strict Walk with God, which 
might justly have been made an Example to a whole 
Colony. 

§ 3. Reader, If thou would’st have seen the true 
Picture of Wisdom, Courage and Generosity, the Suc- 
cessor of Mr. Thomas Prince in the Government of 
Plymouth would have represented it. It was the truly 


SUCCESSORS 5 


Honourable Josiah Winslow, Esq; the first Governour 
that was Born in New-England, and one well worthy 
to be an Example to all that should come after him: 
A True English Gentleman, and (that I may say all 
at once) the True Son of that Gentleman whom we 
parted withal no more than Two Paragraphs ago. 
His Education and his Disposition was that of a Genile- 
man; and his many Services to his Country in the 
Field, as well as on the Bench, ought never to be 
Buried in Oblivion. All that Homer desired in a Ruler, 
was in the Life of this Gentleman expressed unto the 
Life; to be, Fortis in Hostes, and, Bonus in Cives. 
Though he hath left an Of-spring, yet I must ask for 
One Daughter to be remembred above the rest. As 
of Old, Epaminondas being upbraided with want of 
Issue, boasted that he left behind him one Daughter, 
namely, the Battel of Leuctra which would render him 
Immortal; so our General Winslow hath left behind him 
his Battel at the Fort of the Narragansets, to Immortal- 
ize him: There did he with his own Sword make and 
shape a Pen to Write his History. But so large a 
Field of Merit is now before me, that I dare not give 
my self the liberty to Range in it lest I lose my self. 
He died on Dec. 18. 1680. 


Jam Cints est, &F de tam magno restat Achille, 
Nes¢io quid; parvam quod non bene compleat Urnam.! 


§4. And what Successor had he? Methinks of the 
Two last Words in the wonderful Prediction of the 
Succession, Oracled unto King Henry VII. LEO, 
NULLUS, the First would have well suited the Valiant 


1 “Now he is ashes, and there remains of great Achilles I know 
not what—something which does not completely fill a little urn.” 


56 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Winslow of Plymouth; and the last were to have been 
wish’d for him that followed. 


CHAP. III. 
Patres Conscripti:! Or, ASSISTENTS. 


HE GOVERNOURS of New-England have 

still had Righteousness the Girdle of their Loins, 
and Faithfulness the Girdle of their Reins, that is 
to say, Righteous and Faithful Men about them, 
in the Assistance of such Magistrates as were called 
by the Votes of the Freemen unto the Administration 
of the Government, (according to their Charters) and 
made the Judges of the Land. ‘These Persons have 
been such Members of the Churches, and such Patrons 
to the Churches, and generally been such Examples of 
Courage, Wisdom, Justice, Goodness and Religion, 
that it is fit our Church-History should remember them. 
The Blessed 4 pollontus, who in a set Oration Generously 
and Eloquently Pleaded the Cause of Christianity 
before the Roman Senate, was not only a Learned 
Person, but also (if Jerom say right) a Senator of Rome. 
The Senators of New-England also have pleaded the 
Cause of Christianity, not so much by Orations, as by 
Practising of it, and by Suffering for it. Nevertheless, 
as the Sicyonians would have no other Epitaphs 
written on the Tombs of their Kings, but only their 
Names, that they might have no Honour, but what 
the Remembrance of their Actions and Merits in the 
Minds of the People should procure for them; so I shall 
content my self with only reciting the Names of these 
Worthy Persons, and the Times when I find them first 
chosen unto their Magistracy. 

L<*Senators. 7 


ASSISTENTS 57 
MAGISTRATES 1n the Colony of New-Plymouth. 


HE good People, soon after their first coming over, 

chose Mr. William Bradford for their Governour, 
and added Five Assistents, whose Names, I suppose, 
will be found in the Catalogue of them, whom I 
find sitting on the Seat of Judgment among them, in the 
Year 1633. 


Edward Winslow, Gov. 
William Bradford. 
Miles Standish. 

John Howland. 

John Alden. 

John Done.} 

Stephen Hopkins. 
William Gilson. 


Afterwards at several times were added, 


Thomas Prince. 1634, 
William Collier. 1634. 
Timothy Hatherly. 1636. 
John Brown. 1636. 
John Jenny. LOA 
John Atwood. 1638. 
Edmund Freeman. 1640. 
William Thomas. 1642. 
Thomas Willet. 1651. 
Thomas Southworth. 1652. 
James Cudworth. 1656. 
Josiah Winslow. 1OS5¢. 
William Bradford. ¥. 1658. 
Thomas Hinkley. 1658. 


1QOr Doane. 


58 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


James Brown. 1665. 
John Freeman. 1666. 
Nathanael Bacon. 1667. 


Thus far we find in a Book Entituled, New-England’s 
Memorial, which was Published by Mr. Nathanael 
Morton, the Secretary of Plymouth Colony, in the 
Year 1669. Since then there have been added at several 
times, 


Constant Southworth. 1670. 
Daniel Smith. 1674. 
Barnabas Lothrop. 1681. 


John Thatcher. 
John Walley. 


CHAR LY. 


Nehemias Americanus.! The LIFE of JOHN WIN- 
THROP, Esq; Governour of the MASSACHUSET 
COLONY 


Quicung; Venti erunt, Ars nostra certe non aberit. Cicer.” 


§ 1. ET Greece boast of her patient Lycurgus, the 

| Lawgiver, by whom Dziligence, Temperance, 
Fortitude and Wit were made the Fashions of a there- 
fore Long-lasting and Renowned Commonwealth: Let 
Rome tell of her Devout Numa, the Lawgiver, by whom 
the most Famous Commonwealth saw Peace Triumphing 
over extinguished War, and cruel Plunders, and Murders 
giving place to the more mollifying Exercises of his 
Religion. Our New-England shall tell and boast of her 
WINTHROP, a Lawgiver, as patient as Lycurgus, 


1“ The American Nehemiah.” 
2“ Whatever winds shall blow, our art surely shall not die.” 


JOHN WINTHROP 59 


but not admitting any of Ais Criminal Disorders; as 
Devout as Numa, but not liable to any of his Heathenish 
Madnesses; a Governour in whom the Excellencies of 
Christianity made a most improving Addition unto 
the Virtues, wherein even without those he would have 
made a Parallel for the Great Men of Greece, or of 
Rome, which the Pen of a Plutarch has Eternized. 

§ 2. A stock of Heroes by right should afford nothing 
but what is Heroical; and nothing but an extream 
Degeneracy would make any thing less to be expected 
from a Stock of Winthrops. Mr. Adam Winthrop, 
the Son of a Worthy Gentleman wearing the same 
Name, was himself a Worthy, a Discreet, and a 
Learned Gentleman, particularly Eminent for Séil/ 
in the Law, nor without Remark for Love to the Gospel, 
under the Reign of King Henry VIII. And Brother to 
a Memorable Favourer of the Reformed Religion in the 
Days of Queen Mary, into whose Hands the Famous 
Martyr Philpot committed his Papers, which afterwards 
made no Inconsiderable part of our Martyr-Books. 
This Mr. Adam Winthrop had a Son of the same Name 
also, and of the same Endowments and Imployments 
with his Father; and this Third Adam Winthrop was 
the Father of that Renowned John Winthrop, who was 
the Father of New-England, and the Founder of a 
Colony, which upon many Accounts, like him that 
Founded it, may challenge the First Place among the 
English Glories of America.t. Our JOHN WINTHROP 
thus Born at the Mansion-House of his Ancestors, 
at Groton in Suffolk, on June 12. 1587.” enjoyed after- 


1Mr. R. C. Winthrop in his Life and Letters of John Winthrop 
(2d ed.), 1, 12, 13, calls attention to some possible errors in this 
paragraph. 

? According to later biographers, January 12, 1587-83. 


60 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


wards an agreeable Education. But though he would 
rather have Devoted himself unto the Study of Mr. 
John Calvin, than of Sir Edward Cook; nevertheless, 
the Accomplishments of a Lawyer, were those where- 
with Heaven made his chief Opportunities to be 
Serviceable. 

§ 3. Being made, at the unusually early Age of 
Eighteen, a Justice of Peace,’ his Virtues began to fall 
under a more general Observation; and he not only so 
Bound himself to the Behaviour of a Ghristian, as to 
become Exemplary for a Conformity to the Laws of 
Christianity in his own Conversation, but also discoy- 
ered a more than ordinary Measure of those Qualities, 
which adorn an Officer of Humane Society. His Justice 
was Impartial, and used the Ballance to weigh not the 
Cash, but the Case of those who were before him: 
Prosopolatria, he reckoned as bad as Jdololatria:? His 
Wisdom did exquisitely Temper things according to 
the Art of Governing, which is a Business of more Con- 
trivance than the Seven Arts of the Schools: Oyer still 
went before Terminer in all his Administrations:® 
His Courage made him Dare to do right, and fitted him 
to stand among the Lions, that have sometimes been 
the Supporters of the Throne:* All which Virtues he 
rendred the more Illustrious, by Emblazoning them with 
the Constant Liberality and Hospitality of a Gentleman. 
This made him the Terror of the Wicked, and the 
Delight of the Sober, the Envy of the many, but the 


1R. C. Winthrop, op. cit. 1, 223. 

2 “Worship of persons” as bad as “worship of idols.” 

3“ Hearing” before “judging.” 

4 “Tet judges also remember, that Solomon’s throne was supported 
by lions on both sides: let them be lions, but yet lions under the 
throne.” Bacon, Essay of Judicature. 


JOHN WINTHROP 61 


Hope of those who had any Hopeful Design in Hand 
for the Common Good of the Nation, and the Interests 
of Religion. 

§ 4. Accordingly when the Noble Design of carrying 
a Colony of Chosen People into an American Wilderness, 
was by some Eminent Persons undertaken, This Emi- 
nent Person was, by the Consent of all, Chosen for the 
Moses, who must be the Leader of so great an Under- 
taking: And indeed nothing but a Mosaic Spirit could 
have carried him through the Temptations, to which 
either his Farewel to his own Land, or his Travel in a 
Strange Land, must needs expose a Gentleman of 
his Education. Wherefore having Sold a fair Estate 
of Six or Seven Hundred a Year, he Transported 
himself with the Effects of it into New-England in the 
Year 1630. where he spent it upon the Service of a 
famous Plantation founded and formed for the Seat 
of the most Reformed Christianity: And continued there, 
conflicting with Temptations of all sorts, as many 
Years as the Nodes of the Moon take to dispatch a 
Revolution.!. Those Persons were never concerned in 
a New-Plantation, who know not that the unavoidable 
Difficulties of such a thing, will call for all the Prudence 
and Patience of a Mortal Man to Encounter there- 
withal; and they must be very insensible of the In- 
fluence, which the Just Wrath of Heaven has permitted 
the Devils to have upon this World, if they do not 
think that the Difficulties of a New-Plantation, devoted 
unto the Evangelical Worship of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
must be yet more than Ordinary. How Prudently, 
how Patiently, and with how much Resignation to 
our Lord Jesus Christ, our brave Winthrop waded 


1 The time required for a revolution of the nodes of the moon is 
18.6 years. 


62 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


through these Difficulties, let Posterity Consider with 
Admiration. And know, that as the Picture of this their 
Governour, was, after his Death, hung up with Honour 
in the State-House of his Country, so the Wisdom, 
Courage, and Holy Zeal of his Life, were an Example 
well-worthy to be Copied by all that shall succeed in 
Government. 

§ 5. Were he now to be consider’d only as a Chrts- 
tian, we might therein propose him as greatly Imitable. 
He was a very Religious Man; and as he strictly kept 
his Heart, so he kept his House, under the Laws of 
Piety; there he was every Day constant in Holy Duties, 
both Morning and Evening, and on the Lord’s Days, 
and Lectures; though he wrote not after the Preacher, 
yet such was his Attention, and such his Retention in 
Hearing, that he repeated unto his Family the Sermons 
which he had heard in the Congregation. But it is 
chiefly as a Governour that he is now to be consider’d. 
Being the Governour over the considerablest Part of 
New-England, he maintain’d the Figure and Honour 
of his Place with the Spirit of a true Gentleman; but yet 
with such obliging Condescention to the Circumstances 
of the Colony, that when a certain troublesome and 
malicious Calumniator, well known in those Times, 
printed his Libellous Nick-Names upon the chief 
Persons here, the worst Nich-Name [sic] he could find for 
the Governour, was John Temper-well; and when 
the Calumnies of that ill Man caused the Arch-Bishop 
to Summon one Mr. Cleaves before the King, in hopes 
to get some Accusation from him against the Country, 
Mr. Cleaves gave such an Account of the Governour’s 
laudable Carriage in all Respects, and the serious 
Devotion wherewith Prayers were both publickly and 
privately made for His Majesty, that the King ex- 


JOHN WINTHROP 63 


pressed himself most highly Pleased therewithal, only 
Sorry that so Worthy a Person should be no better 
Accommodated than with the Hardships of America. 
He was, indeed, a Governour, who had most exactly 
studied that Book, which pretending to Teach Politicks, 
did only contain Three Leaves, and but One Word in 
each of those Leaves, which Word was, MODERA- 
TION. Hence, though he were a Zealous Enemy to 
all Vice, yet his Practice was according to his Judgment 
thus expressed; In the Infancy of Plantations, Justice 
should be administred with more Lenity than in a settled 
State; because People are more apt then to Transgress, 
partly out of Ignorance of new Laws and Orders, partly out 
of Oppression of Business, and other Straits. [LENTO 
GRADU") was the old Rule; and if the Strings of a 
new Instrument be wound up unto their heighth, they 
will quickly crack. But when some Leading and Learned 
Men took Offence at his Conduct in this Matter, and 
upon a Conference gave it in as their Opinion, That a 
stricter Discipline was to be used in the beginning of a 
Plantation, than after its being with more Age established 
and confirmed, the Governour being readier to see his 
own Errors than other Mens, professed his Purpose to 
endeavour their Satisfaction with less of Lenity in his 
Administrations. At that Conference there were drawn 
up several other Articles to be observed between the 
Governour and the rest of the Magistrates, which were 
of this Import: That the Magistrates, as far as might 
be, should aforehand ripen their Consultations, to pro- 
duce that Unanimity in their Publick Votes, which 
might make them liker to the Voice of God; that if 
Differences fell out among them in their Publick Meet- 
ings, they should speak only to the Case, without any 


1“ By slow degrees.” 


64 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Reflection, with all due Modesty, and but by way of 
Question; or Desire the deferring of the Cause to further 
time; and after Sentence to intimate privately no 
Dislike; that they should be more Familiar, Friendly 
and Open unto each other, and more frequent in their 
Visitations, and not any way expose each other's 
Infirmities, but seek the Honour of each other, and all 
the Court; that One Magistrate shall not cross the 
Proceedings of another, without first advising with 
him; and that they should in all their Appearances 
abroad, be so circumstanced as to prevent all Contempt 
of Authority; and that they should Support and 
Strengthen all Under Officers. All of which Articles 
were observed by no Man more than by the Governour 
himself. 

§6. But whilst he thus did as our New-English 
Nehemiah, the part of a Ruler in Managing the Public 
Affairs of our American Jerusalem, when there were 
Tobijahs and Sanballats enough to vex him, and give 
him the Experiment of Luther’s Observation, Omnis 
qui regit, est tanquam signum, in quod omnia Jacula, 
Satan &§ Mundus dirigunt;! he made himself still an 
exacter Parallel unto that Governour of Israel, by 
doing the part of a Neighbour among the distressed 
People of the New-Plantation. ‘To teach them the 
Frugality necessary for those times, he abridged himself 
of a Thousand comfortable things, which he had 
allow’d himself elsewhere: His Habit was not that 
soft Raiment, which would have been disagreeable 
to a Wilderness; his Table was not covered with the 
Superfluities that would have invited unto Sensualities: 
Water was commonly his own Drink, though he gave 


1“ Everyone who rules is like a target against which Satan and 
the World aim all their darts.” 


JOHN WINTHROP 6s 


Wine to others. But at the same time his Liberality 
unto the Needy was even beyond measure Generous; 
and therein he was continually causing The Blessing 
of him that was ready to Perish to come upon him, and 
the Heart of the Widow and the Orphan to sing for Joy: 
But none more than those of Deceas’d Ministers, whom 
he always treated with a very singular Compassion; 
among the Instances whereof we still enjoy with us 
the Worthy and now Aged Son of that Reverend 
Higginson, whose Death left his Family in a wide 
World soon after his arrival here, publickly acknowl- 
edging the Charitable Winthrop for his Foster-Father. 
It was oftentimes no small Trial unto his Faith, to 
think, How a Table for the People should be furnished 
when they first came into the Wilderness! And for very 
many of the People, his own good Works were needful, 
and accordingly employed for the answering of his 
Faith. Indeed, for a while the Governour was the 
Joseph, unto whom the whole Body of the People 
repaired when their Corn failed them: And he con- 
tinued Relieving of them with his open-handed Bounties, 
as long as he had any Stock to do it with; and a lively 
Faith to see the return of the Bread after many Days, 
and not Starve in the Days that were to pass till that 
return should be seen, carried him chearfully through 
those Expences. Once it was observable, that on 
Feb. 5. 1630. when he was distributing the last Handful 
of the Meal in the Barrel unto a Poor Man distressed 
by the Wolf at the Door, at that Instant they spied a 
Ship arrived at the Harbour’s Mouth Laden with 
Provisions for them all. Yea, the Governour some- 
times made his own private Purse to be the Publick; 


1 John, son of Francis Higginson. He wrote an “Attestation” 
prefixed to the Magnalia. 


66 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


not by sucking into it, but by squeezing out of it; for 
when the Publick Treasure had nothing in it, he did 
himself defray the Charges of the Publick. And having 
learned that Lesson of our Lord, That it 15 better to 
Give, than to Receive, he did, at the General Court 
when he was a Third time chosen Governour, make 
a Speech unto this purpose, That he had received Gratu- 
ties from divers Towns, which he accepted with much 
Comfort and Content; and he had likewtse received Crvili- 
ties from particular Persons, which he could not refuse 
without Incivility in himself: Nevertheless, he took them 
with a trembling Heart, in regard of God's Word, and 
the Conscience of his own Infirmities; and therefore he 
desired them that they would not hereafter take 1 Ill 
if he refused such Presents for the time to come. *Iwas 
his Custom also to send some of his Family upon Er- 
rands, unto the Houses of the Poor about their Meal- 
time, on purpose to spy whether they wanted; and if 
it were found that they wanted, he would make that 
the Opportunity of sending Supplies unto them. And 
there was one Passage of his Charity that was perhaps 
a little wnusual: In an hard and long Winter, when 
Wood was very scarce at Boston, a Man gave him a 
private Information, that a needy Person in the Neigh- 
bourhood stole Wood sometimes from his Pile; where- 
upon the Governour in a seeming Anger did reply, 
Does he so? I'll take a Course with him; go, call that 
Man to me, I'll warrant you I'll cure him of Stealing! 
When the Man came, the Governour considering that 
if he had Stoln, it was more out of Necessity than Dis- 
position, said unto him, Friend, It is a severe Winter, 
and I doubt you are but meanly provided for Wood; 
wherefore I would have you supply your self at my Wood- 
Pile till this cold Season be over. And he then Merrily 


JOHN WINTHROP 67 


asked his Friends, Whether he had not effectually cured 
this Man of Stealing his Wood? 

§ 7. One would have imagined that so good a Man 
could have had no Enemies; if we had not had a daily 
and woful Experience to Convince us, that Goodness 
it self will make Enemies. It is a wonderful Speech 
of Plato, (in one of his Books, De Republica) For the 
trial of true Vertue, ’tis necessary that a good Man pnd€év 
abicav, ddEav exer Thy weyistny adixtas, Tho’ he do no 
unjust thing, should suffer the Infamy of the greatest 
Injustice. The Governour had by his unspotted Jnteg- 
rity, procured himself a great Repntation [sic] among 
the People; and then the Crime of Popularity was laid 
unto his Charge by such, who were willing to deliver 
him from the Danger of having all Men speak well of 
him. Yea, there were Persons eminent both for Figure 
and for Number, unto whom it was almost Essential 
to dislike every thing that came from him; and yet he 
always maintained an Amicable Correspondence with 
them; as believing that they acted according to their 
Judgment and Conscience, or that their Eyes were 
held by some Temptation in the worst of all their 
Oppositions. Indeed, his right Works were so many, 
that they exposed him unto the Envy of his Neighbours; 
and of such Power was that Envy, that sometimes he 
could not stand before it; but it was by not standing 
that he most effectually withstood it all. Great Attempts 
were sometimes made among the Freemen, to get him 
left out from his Place in the Government upon little 
Pretences, lest by the too frequent Choice of One Man, 
the Government should cease to be by Choice; and with 
a particular aim at him, Sermons were Preached at the 
Anniversary Court of Election, to disswade the Freemen 
from chusing One Man Twice together. This was the 


63 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Reward of his extraordinary Serviceableness! But 
when these Attempts did succeed, as they sometimes 
did, his Profound Humility appeared in that Equality 
of Mind, wherewith he applied himself cheerfully to 
serve the Country in whatever Station their Votes 
had allotted for him. And one Year when the Votes 
came to be Numbered, there were found Six less for 
Mr. Winthrop, than for another Gentleman who then 
stood in Competition: But several other Persons regu- 
larly Tendring their Votes before the Election was pub- 
lished, were, upon a very frivolous Objection, re- 
fused by some of the Magistrates, that were afraid 
lest the Election should at last fall upon Mr. Winthrop: 
Which though it was well perceived, yet such was the 
Self-denial, of this Patriot, that he would not permit 
any Notice to be taken of the Injury. But these 
Trials were nothing in Comparison of those harsher and 
harder Treats, which he sometimes had from the 
Frowardness of not a few in the Days of their Paroxisms; 
and from the Faction of some against him, not much 
unlike that of the Piazzi in Florence against the Family 
of the Medices: All of which he at last Conquered by 
Conforming to the Famous Judges Motto, Prudens 
qui Patiens.' The Oracles of God have said, Envy 15 
rottenness to the Bones; and Gultelmus Parisiensis* 
applies it unto Rulers, who are as it were the Bones 
of the Societies which they belong unto: Envy, says 
he, 1s often found among them, and 1t 15 rottenness unto 
them. Our Winthrop Encountred this Envy from others, 
but Conquered it, by being free from it himself. 

§ 8. Were it not for the sake of introducing the 
Exemplary Skill of this Wise Man, at giving soft Answers, 


1 “ He is prudent who is patient.” 
2 William, who became Bishop at Paris, in 1228. 


JOHN WINTHROP 69 


one would not chuse to Relate those Instances of 
Wrath, which he had sometimes to Encounter with; 
but he was for his Genitleness, his Forbearance, and his 
Longanimity, a Pattern so worthy to be Written after, 
that something must here be Written of it. He seemed 
indeed never to speak any other Language than that of 
Theodosius, If any Man speak evil of the Governour, if 
it be thro’ Lightness, ’tis to be contemned; if it be thro’ 
Madness, ’tis to be pitied; if it be thro’ Injury, ’tis to be 
remitted. Behold, Reader, the Meekness of Wisdom 
notably exemplified! There was a time when he 
received a very sharp Letter from a Gentleman, who 
was a Member of the Court, but he delivered back the 
Letter unto the Messengers that brought it with such 
a Christian Speech as this, J am not willing to keep such 
a matter of Provocation by me! Afterwards the same 
Gentleman was compelled by the scarcity of Provisions 
to send unto him that he would Sell him some of his 
Cattel; whereupon the Governour prayed him to 
accept what he had sent for as a Token of his Good 
Will; but the Gentleman returned him this Answer, 
Sir, your overcoming of your self hath overcome me; and 
afterwards gave Demonstration of it. The French have 
a saying, That Un Honeste Homme, est un Homme 
mesle! A good Man is a mixt Man; and there hardly 
ever was a more sensible Mixture of those Two things, 
Resolution and Condescention, than in this good Man. 
There was a time when the Court of Election, being 
for fear of Tumult, held at Cambridge, May 17. 1637. 
The Sectarian part of the Country, who had the Year 
before gotten a Governour more unto their Mind, had 
a Project now to have confounded the Election, by 
demanding that the Court would consider a Petition 
then tendered before their Proceeding thereunto. Mr. 


7O MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Winthrop saw that this was only a Trick to throw 
all into Confusion, by putting off the Choice of the 
Governour and Assistents until the Day should be over; 
and therefore he did, with a strenuous Resolution, 
procure a disappointment unto that mischievous and 
ruinous Contrivance. Nevertheless, Mr. Winthrop 
himself being by the Voice of the Freemen in this 
Exigence chosen the Governour, and all of the other 
Party left out, that ill-affected Party discovered the 
Dirt and Mire, which remained with them, after the 
Storm was over; particularly the Serjeants, whose 
Office ’twas to attend the Governour, laid down their 
Halberts; but such was the Condescention of this Govy- 
ernour, as to take no present Notice of this Anger 
and Contempt, but only Order some of his own Ser- 
vants to take the Halberts: And when the Country 
manifested their deep Resentments of the Affront 
thus offered him, he prayed them to overlook it. But 
it was not long before a Compensation was made for 
these things by the doubled Respects which were from 
all Parts paid unto him. Again, there was a time when 
the Suppression of an Antinomian and Familistical 
Faction, which extreamly threatned the Ruin of the 
Country, was generally thought much owing unto this 
Renowned Man;! and. therefore when the Friends of 
that Faction could not wreak their Displeasure on 
him with any Politick Vexations, they set themselves 
to do it by LEcclesistical? ones. Accordingly when a 
Sentence of Banishment was passed on the Ringleaders 
of those Disturbances, who 


1This refers to the “persecution” of Anne Hutchinson for her 
nonconformity to Puritan ideas—an incident celebrated in the 
early history of New England. 

2 Ecclesiastical. 


JOHN WINTHROP 71 


—Maria & Terras, Cealumq; profundum, 
Quippe ferant, Rapidi, secum, vertantq; per Auras; } 


many at the Church of Boston, who were then that way 
too much inclined, most earnestly solicited the Elders 
of that Church, whereof the Governour was a Member, 
to call him forth as an Offender for passing of that 
Sentence. The Elders were unwilling to do any such 
thing; but the Governour understanding the Ferment 
among the People, took that occasion to make a Speech 
in the Congregation to this Effect. ‘Brethren, Under- 
‘standing that some of you have desired that I should 
‘Answer for an Offence lately taken among you; had I 
‘been called upon so to do, I would, First, Have advised 
‘with the Ministers of the Country, whether the Church 
‘had Power to call in Question the Civil Court; and | 
‘would, Secondly, Have advised with the rest of the 
‘Court, whether I might discover their Counsels unto 
‘the Church. But though I know that the Reverend 
‘Elders of this Church, and some others, do very well 
‘apprehend that the Church cannot enquire into the 
‘Proceedings of the Court; yet for the Satisfaction of 
‘the weaker who do not apprehend it, I will declare 
‘my Mind concerning it. If the Church have any such 
“Power, they have it from the Lord Jesus Christ; but 
‘the Lord Jesus Christ hath disclaimed it, not only 
‘by Practice, but also by Precept, which we have in 
‘his Gospel, Mat. 20. 25, 26. It is true indeed, that 
‘Magistrates, as they are Church-Members, are account- 
‘able unto the Church for their Failings; but that is 
‘when they are out of their Calling. When Uzziah 
‘would go offer Incense in the Temple, the Officers 


“Swift bear with them sea and earth and the lofty sky, and 
drive them through the air,” 


72 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


‘of the Church called him to an account, and withstood 
‘him; but when 4sa put the Prophet in Prison, the 
‘Officers of the Church did not call him to an account 
‘for that. If the Magistrate shall in a private way wrong 
‘any Man, the Church may call him to an Account for 
‘it; but if he be in Pursuance of a Course of Justice, 
‘though the thing that he does be unjust, yet he is 
‘not accountable for it before the Church. As for my 
‘self I did nothing in the Causes of any of the Brethren, 
‘but by the Advice of the Elders of the Church. More- 
‘over, in the Oath which I have taken there 1s this 
‘Clause, In all Causes wherein you are to give your Vote, 
‘you shall do as in your Judgment and Conscience you 
‘shall see io be Just, and for the publick Good. And lam 
‘satisfied, it is most for the Glory of God, and the 
‘publick Good, that there has been such a Sentence 
‘passed; yea, those Brethren are so divided from the 
‘rest of the Country in their Opinions and Practices, 
‘that it cannot stand with the publick Peace for them 
‘to continue with us; Abraham saw that Hagar and 
‘Ishmael must be sent away. By such a Speech he 
marvellously convinced, satisfied and mollified the 
uneasie Brethren of the Church; Ste cunctus Pelagi 
cecidit Fragor—.1 And after a little patient waiting, 
the differences all so wore away, that the Church, 
meerly as a Token of Respect unto the Governour, 
when he had newly met with some Losses in his Estate, 
sent him a Present of several Hundreds of Pounds. 
Once more there was a time, when some active Spirits 
among the Deputies of the Colony, by their endeavours 
not only to make themselves a Court of Judicature, 
but also to take away the Negative by which the Magis- 
trates might check their Votes, had like by over-driving 
1 “So all the din of the sea subsided.” 


a 


JOHN WINTHROP 73 


to have run the whole Government into something too 
Democratical. And if there were a Town in Spain 
undermined by Coneys, another Town in Thrace de- 
stroyed by Moles, a Third in Greece ranversed by Frogs, 
a Fourth in Germany subverted by Rats; I must on 
this Occasion add, that there was a Country in America 
like to be confounded by a Swine. A certain stray Sow 
being found, was claimed by Two several Persons with 
a Claim so equally maintained on both sides, that 
after Six or Seven Years Hunting the Business, from 
one Court unto another, it was brought at last into the 
General Court, where the final Determination was, 
that 1t was impossible to proceed unto any Judgment in 
the Case. However in the debate of this Matter, the 
Negative of the Upper-House upon the Lower in that 
Court was brought upon the Stage; and agitated with 
so hot a Zeal, that a little more and all had been in the 
Fire. In these Agitations the Governour was informed 
that an offence had been taken by some eminent 
Persons, at certain Passages in a Discourse by him 
written thereabout; whereupon with his usual Con- 
descendency, when he next came into the General 
Court, he made a Speech of this Import. ‘I under- 
“stand, that some have taken Offence at something that 
‘T have lately written; which Offence I desire to remove 
‘now, and begin this Year in a reconciled State with 
‘you all. As for the Matter of my Writing, I had the 
‘Concurrence of my Brethren; it is a Point of Judgment 
‘which is not at my own disposing. I have examined 
‘it over and over again, by such Light as God has given 
“me, from the Rules of Religion, Reason, and Custom; 
‘and I see no cause to Retract any thing of it: Where- 
‘fore I must enjoy my Liberty in that, as you do your 
“selves. But for the Manner, this, and all that was 


74 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


‘blame-worthy in it, was wholly my own; and whatso- 
‘ever I might alledge for my own Justification therein 
“before Men, I wave it, as now setting my self before 
‘another Judgment-Seat. However, what I wrote 
‘was upon great Provocation, and to vindicate my self 
‘and others from great Aspersion; yet that was no 
‘sufficient Warrant for me to allow any Distemper of 
‘Spirit in my self; and I doubt I have been too prodigal 
‘of my Brethren’s Reputation; | might have maintained 
‘my Cause without casting any Blemish upon others, 
‘when I made that my Conclusion, 4nd now let Religion 
‘and sound Reason give Judgment in the Case; it look’d 
‘as if I arrogated too much unto my self, and too little 
‘to others. And when I made that Profession, That 
‘IT would maintain what I wrote before all the World, 
‘though such Words might modestly be spoken, yet 
‘I perceive an unbeseeming Pride of my own Heart 
‘breathing in them. For these Failings I ask Pardon 
“both of God and Man. 


Sic ait, &F dicto citeus Tumida Aquora placat, 
Collectasq; fugat Nubes, Solemq; reducit.! 


This acknowledging Disposition in the Governour, 
made them all acknowledge, that he was truly a Man 
of an excellent Spirit. In fine, the Victories of an Alex- 
ander, an Hannibal, or a Cesar over other Men, were 
not so Glorious, as the Victories of this great Man over 
himself, which also at last prov’d Victories over other 
Men. 

§9. But the stormiest of all the Trials that ever 
befel this Gentleman, was in the Year 1645. when he 
was in 7itle no more than Deputy-Governour of the 


1“So he spoke, and thus quickly calmed the swelling sea, put to 
rout the gathered clouds, and brought back the sun,” 


JOHN WINTHROP “As 


Colony. If the famous Cato were Forty-four times 
call’d into Judgment, but as often acquitted; let it 
not be wondred, and if our Famous Winthrop were one 
time so. There hapning certain Seditious and Mutinous 
Practices in the Town of Hingham, the Deputy-Gover- 
nour as legally as prudently interposed his Authority 
for the checking of them: Whereupon there followed 
such an Enchantment upon the minds of the Deputies 
in the General Court, that upon a scandalous Petition 
of the Delinquents unto them, wherein a pretended 
Invasion made upon the Liberties of the People was 
complained of the Deputy-Governour, was most Irregu- 
larly call’d forth unto an Ignominous Hearing before 
them in a vast Assembly; whereto with a Sagacious 
Humility he consented, although he shew’d them how 
he might have Refused it. The result of that Hearing 
was, That notwithstanding the touchy J/ealousie of 
the People about their Liberties lay at the bottom of 
all this Prosecution, yet Mr. Winthrop was publickly 
Acquitted, and the Offenders were severally Fined and 
Censured. But Mr. Winthrop then resuming the Place 
of Deputy-Governour on the Bench, saw cause to speak © 
unto the Root of the Matter after this manner. ‘I shall 
‘not now speak any thing about the past Proceedings 
‘of this Court, or the Persons therein concerned. Only 
‘I bless God that I see an Issue of this troublesome 
“Affair. I am well satisfied that I was publickly Accused, 
‘and that I am now publickly Acquitted. But though 
‘I am justified before Men, yet it may be the Lord hath 
‘seen so much amiss in my Administrations, as calls 
‘me to be humbled; and indeed for me to have been 
‘thus charged by Men, is it self a Matter of Humiliation, 
‘whereof I desire to make a right use before the Lord. 
‘If Miriam’s Father spit in her Face, she is to be Ashamed. 


76 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


‘But give me leave before you go, to say something 
‘that may rectifie the Opinions of many People, from 
‘whence the Distempers have risen that have lately 
‘prevailed upon the Body of this People. The Questions 
‘that have troubled the Country have been about the 
‘Authority of the Magistracy, and the Liberty of the 
‘People. It is You who have called us unto this Office; 
‘but being thus called, we have our Authority from God; 
‘it is the Ordinance of God, and it hath the Image of 
‘God stamped upon it; and the contempt of it has been 
‘vindicated by God with terrible Examples of his 
‘Vengeance. I intreat you to consider, That when 
‘you chuse Magistrates, you take them from among 
‘your selves, Men subject unto like Passions with your 
‘selves. If you see our Infirmities, reflect on your own, 
‘and you will not be so severe Censurers of Ours. We 
‘count him a good Servant who breaks not his Covenant: 
“The Covenant between Us and You, is the Oath you 
‘have taken of us, which is to this Purpose, That we 
‘shall govern you, and judge your Causes, according to 
‘God’s Laws, and our own, according to our best Skill. 
“As for our Skil/, you must run the hazard of it; and 
“if there be an Error, not in the Will, but only in the 
‘Skill, it becomes you to bear it. Nor would I have 
‘you to, mistake ia the Point of your own Liberty. 
“There is a Liberty of corrupt Nature, which is affected 
‘both by Men and Beasts, to do what they list; and 
‘this Liberty is inconsistent with Authority, impatient 
‘of all Restraint; by this Liberty, Sumus Omnes Deterio- 
“res;+ Tis the Grand Enemy of Truth and Peace, and 
‘all the Ordinances of God are bent against it. But 
‘there is a Civil, a Moral, a Federal Liberty, which is 
‘the proper End and Object of Authority; it is a Liberty 


1“ We are all the worse.” 


JOHN WINTHROP + 


‘for that only which is just and good; for this Liberty 
‘you are to stand with the hazard of your very Lives; 
‘and whatsoever Crosses it, is not Authority, but a 
‘Distemper thereof: This Liberty is maintained in a 
‘way of Subjection to Authority; and the Authority set 
‘over you, will in all Administrations for your good 
‘be quietly submitted unto, by all but such as have a 
‘Disposition to shake off the Yoke, and lose their true 
‘Liberty, by thetr murmuring at the Honour and Power 
‘of Authority.! 

The Spell that was upon the Eyes of the People 
being thus dissolved, their distorted and enraged notions 
of things all vanished; and the People would not after- 
wards entrust the Helm of the Weather-beaten Bark in 
any other Hands, but Mr. Winthrop’s, until he Died. 

§ 10. Indeed such was the Mixture of distant Quali- 
ites in him, as to make a most admirable Temper, and 
his having a certain Greatness of Soul, which rendered 
him Grave, Generous, Courageous, Resolved, Well- 
applied, and every way a Gentleman in his Deameanour, 
did not hinder him from taking sometimes the old 
Romans way to avoid Confusions, namely, Cedendo; * 
or from discouraging some things which are agreeable 
enough to most that wear the Name of Gentlemen. 
Hereof I will give no Instances, but only oppose two 
Passages of his Life. 

In the Year 1632. the Governour, with his Pastor 
Mr. Wilson, and some other Gentlemen, to settle a good 
understanding between the Two Colonies, travelled 
as far as Plymouth, more than Forty Miles, through 


1De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (trans. Reeve, 4th ed., 
1864), 1, 52, calls the speech of Winthrop here reported “a fine defini- 
tion of liberty.” It has become justly famous. 

2“ By yielding.” 


78 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


an Howling Wilderness, no better accommodated in 
those early Days, than the Princes that in Solomon’s 
time saw Servants on Horseback, or than Genus and 
Species in the old Epigram, going on Foot. The difficulty 
of the Walk, was abundantly compensated by the 
Honourable, first Reception, and then Dismission, which 
they found from the Rulers of Plymouth; and by the 
good Correspondence thus established between the 
New Colonies, who were like the floating Bottels 
wearing this Motto, Sz Collidimur, Frangimur.1 But 
there were at this time in Plymouth two Miuinisters, 
leavened so far with the Humours of the Rigid Separa- 
tion, that they insisted vehemently upon the Unlawful- 
ness of calling any unregenerate Man by the Name of 
Good-man such an One, until by their indiscreet urging 
of this Whimsey, the place began to be disquieted. 
The wiser People being troubled at these Trifles, they 
took the opportunity of Governour Winthrop’s being 
there, to have the thing publickly propounded in the 
Congregation; who in answer thereunto, distinguished 
between a Theological and a Moral Goodness; adding, 
that when Juries were first used in England, it was usual 
for the Crier, after the Names of Persons fit for that 
Service were called over, to bid them all, Attend, Good 
Men, and True; whence it grew to be a Civil Custom 
in the English Nation, for Neighbours living by one 
another, to call one another Good-man such an One: 
And jt was pity now to make a stir about a Civil Custom, 
so innocently introduced. And that Speech of Mr. 
Winthrop’s put a lasting stop to the Little, Idle, Whim- 
sical Conceits, then beginning to grow Obstreperous. 
Nevertheless there was one Civil Custom used in (and 
in few but) the English Nation, which this Gentleman 
1 “Tf we collide, we break.” 


JOHN WINTHROP 79 


did endeavour to abolish in this Country; and that was, 
The usage of Drinking to one another. For although 
by Drinking to one another, no more is meant than an 
act of Courtesie, when one going to Drink, does Invite 
another to do so too, for the same Ends with himself; 
nevertheless the Governour (not altogether unlike to 
Cleomenes, of whom ’tis reported by Plutarch, dnovtt 
ovdels troTHpiov mpoaépepe, Nolenti poculum nunquam 
prebuit,') considered the Impertinency and Insignif- 
icancy of this Usage, as to any of those Ends that are 
usually pretended for it; and that indeed it ordinarily 
served for no Ends at all, but only to provoke Persons 
unto unseasonable, and perhaps unreasonable Drinking, 
and at last produce that abominable Health-Drinking, 
which the Fathers of old so severely rebuked in the 
Pagans, and which the Papists themselves do Condemn, 
when their Casuists pronounce it, Peccatum mortale, 
provocare ad Asquales Calices, §& Nefas Respondere.” 
Wherefore in his own most Hospitable House he left 
it off, not out of any silly or stingy Fancy, but meerly 
that by his Example a greater Temperance, with Liberty 
of Drinking, might be Recommended, and sundry 
Inconveniences in Drinking avoided; and his Example 
accordingly began to be much followed by the sober 
People in this Country, as it now also begins to be among 
Persons of the Highest Rank in the English Nation it 
self; until an Order of Court came to be made against 
that Ceremony in Drinking, and then the old Wont 
violently returned, with a Nitimur in Vetitum.* 

S11. Many were the Afflictions of this Righteous 


1 “Never offered drink to one who was unwilling.” 

2 “Tt is a mortal sin to challenge anyone to a drinking match, and 
wrong to accept such a challenge.” 

3 “We strive for what is forbidden.” 


80 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Man! He lost much of his Estate in a Ship, and in an 
House, quickly after his coming to New-England, 
besides the Prodigious Expence of it in the Difficulties 
of his first coming hither. Afterwards his assiduous 
Application unto the Publick Affairs, (wherein Ipse 
se non habuit, postquam Respublica eum Gubernatorem 
habere capit)! made him so much to neglect his own 
private Interests, that an unjust Steward ran him 
2500 /. in Debt before he was aware; for the Payment 
whereof he was forced, many Years before his Decease, 
to sell the most of what he had left unto him in the 
Country. Albeit, by the observable Blessing of God 
upon the Posterity of this Liberal Man, his Children 
all of them came to fair Estates, and lived in good 
Fashion and Credit. Moreover, he successively Buried 
Three Wives; the First of which was the Daughter and 
Heiress of Mr. Forth, of Much Stambridge? in Essex, 
by whom he had Wisdom with an Inheritance; and 
an excellent Son. The Second was the Daughter of 
Mr. William Clopton, of London,* who Died with her 
Child, within a very little while. The Third was the 
Daughter of the truly Worshipful Sir John Tyndal,* 
who made it her whole Care to please, First God, and 
then her Husband; and by whom he had Four Sons, 
which Survived and Honoured their Father. And unto 
all these, the Addition of the Distempers, ever now and 
then raised in the Country, procured unto him a very 
singular share of Trouble; yea, so hard was the Measure 


1“ He did not possess himself after the state began to possess him 
as governor.” 

2 Or Great Stambridge. 

3R. C. Winthrop, op. cit., says “of Castleins, a seat near Groton” 
(1, 75). 

“Cy stdrit, (12 tit 


JOHN WINTHROP 81 


which he found even among Pious Men, in the Tempta- 
tions of a Wildernéss, that when the Thunder and Light- 
ning had smitten a Wind-mill, whereof he was Owner, 
some had such things in their Heads, as publickly to 
Reproach this Charitablest of Men, as if the Voice of the 
Almighty had rebuked, I know not what Oppression, 
which they judged him Guilty of: Which things I would 
not have mentioned, but that the Instances may 
fortihne the Expectations of my best Readers for such 
Afflictions. 

§ 12. He that had been for his Attainments, as 
they said of the blessed Macarius, a Uasdaptoyepov 
An old Man, while a young One, and that had in his 
young Days met with many of those J/] Days, whereof 
he could say, he had U:ttle Pleasure in them; now found 
old Age in its Infirmities advancing Earlier upon him, 
than it came upon his much longer lived Progenitors. 
While he was yet Seven Years off of that which we 
call the grand Climacterical,' he felt the Approaches 
of his Dissolution; and finding he could say, 


Non Habitus, non ipse Color non Gressus Euntis, 
Non Species Eadem, que fuit ante, manet.? 


he then wrote this account of himself, Age now comes 
upon me, and Infirmities therewithal, which makes me 
apprehend that the time of my departure out of this 
World 1s not far off. However our times are all in the 
Lord’s Hand, so as we need not trouble our Thoughts how 
long or short they may be, but how we may be found Faith- 
ful when we are called for. But at last when that Year 


1 The sixty-third year of life. | 
2“ There remains not the appearance, not even the color, nor the 
way of life, and not the same aspect, of that which was before.” 


82 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


came, he took a Cold which turned into a Feaver, where- 
of he lay Sick about a Month, and in that Sickness, 
as it hath been observed, that there was allowed unto 
the Serpent the bruising of the Heel; and accordingly at 
the Heel or the Close of our Lives the old Serpent will 
be Nibbling more than ever in our Lives before; and 
when the Devil sees that we shall shortly be, where the 
wicked cease from troubling, that wicked One will trouble 
us more than ever; so this eminent Saint now underwent 
sharp Conflicts with the Tempter, whose Wrath grew 
Great, as the Time to exert it grew Short; and he was 
Buffetted with the Disconsolate Thoughts of Black 
and Sore Desertions, wherein he could use that sad 
Representation of his own Condition. 


Nuper Eram Judex; Jam Judicor; Ante Tribunat, 


Subsistens paveo, Judicor 1pse modo.' 


But it was not long before those Clouds were Dis- 
pelled, and he enjoyed in his Holy Soul the Great Con- 
solations of God! While he thus lay Ripening for 
Heaven, he did out of Obedience unto the Ordinance 
of our Lord, send for the Elders of the Church to Pray 
with him; yea, they and the whole Church Fasted as 
well as Prayed for him; and in that Fast the venerable 
Cotton® Preached on Psal. 35. 13, 14. When they were 
Sick, I humbled my self with Fasting; I behaved my self 
as though he had been my Friend or Brother; I bowed 
down heavily, as one that Mourned for his Mother: From 
whence [ find him raising that Observation, The 
Sickness of one that 1s to us as a Friend, a Brother, a 


1“Once I was a judge; now I am judged. I stand trembling before 
the tribunal, now I myself am judged.” 
? Rev. John Cotton, grandfather of Cotton Mather. 


JOHN WINTHROP 83 


Mother, 1s a just occasion of deep humbling our Souls 
with Fasting and Prayer; and making this Application, 
‘Upon this Occasion we are now to attend this Duty for 
‘a Governour, who has been to us as a Friend in his 
‘Counsel for all things, and Help for our Bodies by 
Physick, for our Estates by Law, and of whom there 
“was no fear of his becoming an Enemy, like the Friends 
‘of David: A Governour who has been unto us as a 
“Brother; not usurping Authority over the Church; 
‘often speaking his Adzice, and often contradicted, 
“even by Young Men, and some of low degree; yet not 
‘replying, but offering Satisfaction also when any 
“supposed Offences have arisen; a Governour who has 
‘been unto us as a Mother, Parent-like distributing 
‘his Goods to Brethren and Neighbours at his first 
“coming: and gently bearing our Infirmities without 
‘taking notice of them. 

Such a Governour after he had been more than Ten 
several times by the People chosen their Governour, 
was New-England now to lose; who having, like Jacob, 
first left his Council and Blessing with his Children 
gathered about his Bed-side; and, like David, served 
his Generation by the Will of God, he gave up the Ghost 
and fell asleep on March 26. 1649. Having, like the 
dying Emperour Valentinian, this above all his other 
Victories for his Triumphs, His overcoming of himself. 

The Words of Josephus about Nehemiah, the Gover- 
nour of Jsrael, we will now use upon this Governour of 
New-England, as his 


EPITAPH. 


"Avyp éyévero xpnaoTos THY gvow, Kal dixatos, 
Kal wept rovs dpoedveis pudoTioraros: 


84 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


~a ? , 5] 4 \ ~ 
Mynpétov dauwviov auTw xaTadiToy TA TWV 
‘lepocod\tpwv Teixn'! 


VIR FUIT INDOLE BONUS, AC JUSTUS: 

ET POPULARIUM GLORIZE AMANTISSIMUS: 

QUIBUS ETERNUM RELIQUIT MONUMENTUM, 
Novanglorum MOENIA. 


CTA Taare 
SUCCESSORS. 


Si. NE as well acquainted with the Matter, 
C) as Isocrates, informs us, That among the 
Judges of Areopagus mone were ad- 
mitted, 7Anv OL KaAwS YyeyoveTES Kat TOAAHY apEeTHY 
kal cadpootyny év TH Biw evdedevrypevot, unless they 
were Nobly Born, and Eminently Exemplary for a Vir- 
tuous and a Sober Life. The Report may be truly 
made concerning the Judges of New-England, tho’ 
they were not Nobly Born, yet they were generally 
Well Born; and by being Eminently Exemplary for a 
Virtuous and a Sober Life, gave Demonstration that 
they were New-Born.? Some Account of them is now 
more particularly to be Endeavoured. 

We read concerning Saul, [1 Sam. 15. 12.] He set 
up himself a place. The Hebrew Word, 4. there used, 
signifies 4 Monumental Pillar: It is accordingly prom- 
ised unto them who lease God, [Isa. 56. 5.] That they 
shall have a Place and a Name in the House of God; that 


1“ He was a man by nature good and just, and most zealous for 
honor for his countrymen, leaving for them an eternal memorial— 
the walls of Jerusalem.” The Latin paraphrase which follows substi- 
tutes New England for Jerusalem. 

2 J, e., newborn religiously. 


SUCCESSORS 8 


is to say, a Pillar Erected for Fame in the Church of 
God. And it shall be fulfilled in what shall now be done 
for our Governours in this our Church-History. Even 
while the Massachusettensians had a Winthrop for their 
Governour, they could not restrain the Channel of 
their Affections from running towards another Gentle- 
man in their Elections for the Year 1634. particularly, 
when they chose unto the Place of Governour Thomas 
Dudley, Esq; one whom after the Death of the Gentle- 
man abovementioned, they again and again Voted 
into the Chief Place of Government. He was Born at 
the Town of Northampton, in the Year 1574.1 the only 
Son of Captain Roger Dudley, who being Slain in the 
Wars, left this our Thomas, with his only Sister, for 
the Father of the Orphans, to take them up. In the 
Family of the Earl of Northampton he had opportunity 
perfectly to learn the Points of Good Behaviour; and 
here having fitted himself to do many other Benefits 
unto the World, he next became a Clerk unto Judge 
Nichols, who being his Kinsman by the Mother’s Side, 
therefore took the more special notice of him. From 
his Relation to this Judge, he had and used an Advan- 
tage to attain such a Skill in the Law, as was of great 
Advantage to him in the future changes of his Life; 
and the Judge would have preferred him unto the 
higher Imployments, whereto his prompt Wit not a 
little recommended him, if he had not been by Death 
prevented. But before he could appear to do much at 
the Pen, for which he was very well Accomplished, he 
was called upon to do something at the Sword; for being 
a Young Gentlemen [sic] well-known for his Ingenuity, 
Courage and Conduct, when there were Soldiers to be 


1 Tf Dudley’s age at his death, as given by Mather, is correct, this 
should be 1576, not 1574. 


86 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


raised by Order from Queen Elizabeth for the French 
Service, in the time of King Henry the Fourth, the 
Young Sparks about Northampton were none of them 
willing to enter into the Service, until a Commission 
was given unto our Young Dudley to be their Captain; 
and then presently there were Fourscore that Listed 
under him. At the Head of these he went over into the 
Low Countries, which was then an Academy of Arms, 
as well as Arts; and thus he came to furnish himself 
with Endowments for the Fie/d, as well as for the 
Bench. The Post assigned unto him with his Company, 
was after at the Siege of Amiens, before which the 
King himself was now Encamped; but the Providence 
of God so Ordered it, that when both Parties were 
drawn forth in Order to Battel, a Treaty of Peace was 
vigorously set on Foot, which diverted the Battel that 
was expected. Captain Dudley hereupon returned 
into England, and settling himself about Northampton, 
he Married a Gentlewoman whose Extract and Estate 
were Considerable; and the Scituation of his Habitation 
after this helped him to enjoy the Ministry of Mr. 
Dod, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Winston, and Mr. Hildersham, 
all of them Excellent and Renowned Men; which 
Puritan Ministry so seasoned his Heart with a Sense of 
Religion, that he was a Devout and Serious Christian, 
and a Follower of the Ministers that most effectually 
Preached Real Christianity all the rest of his Days. 
The Spirit of Real Christianity in him now also disposed 
him unto Sober Non-Conformity; and from this time, 
although none more hated the Fanaticisms and En- 
thusiasms of Wild Opinionists, he became a Judicious 
Dissenter from the Unscriptural Ceremonies retained 
in the Church of England.! It was not long after this 
1 Cf. p. xliv, ante. 


SUCCESSORS 87 


that the Lord Say, the Lord Compton, and other Persons 
of Quality, made such Observations of him, as to com- 
mend him unto the Service of the Earl of Lincoln, 
who was then a Young Man, and newly come unto the 
Possession of his Earldom, and of what belonged there- 
unto. The Grandfather of this Noble Person had left 
his Heirs under vast Entanglements, out of which his 
Father was never able to Extricate himself; so that the 
Difficulties and Incumbrances were now devolved 
upon this Theophilus! which caused him to apply him- 
self unto this our Dudley for his Assistances, who 
proved so Able, and Careful, and Faithful a Steward 
unto him, that within a little while the Debts of near 
Twenty Thousand Pounds, whereinto the Young 
Earl found himself desperately Ingulphed, were happily 
waded through; and by his Means also a Match was 
procured between the Young Earl and the Daughter 
of the Lord Say, who proved a most Virtuous Lady, 
and a great Blessing to the whole Family. But the 
Earl finding Mr. Dudley to be a Person of more than 
ordinary Discretion, he would rarely, if ever, do any 
Matter of any Moment without his Advice; but some 
into whose Hands there fell some of his Manuscripts 
after his leaving of the Earl’s Family, found a Passage 
to this purpose. The Estate of the Earl of Lincoln, 
I found so, and so, much in Debt, whith I have discharged, 
and have raised the Rents unto so many Hundreds Per 
Annum; God will, I trust, bless me and mine in such a 
manner. I can, as sometimes Nehemiah did, appeal 
unto God, who knows the Hearts of all Men, that I have 
with Integrity discharged the Duty of my Place before him. 

I had prepared and intended a more particular Ac- 


1 Theophilus Clinton, fourth Earl of Lincoln. Cf. Augustine Jones, 
Life and Work of Thomas Dudley (Boston, 1899), ch. 4. 


88 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


count of this Gentleman; but not having any op- 
portunity to commit it unto the Perusal of any 
Descended from him, (unto whom I am told it will be 
unacceptable for me to Publish any thing of this kind, 
by them not Perused) I have laid it aside, and summed 
all up in this more General Account." 

It was about Nine or Ten Years, that Mr. Dudley 
continued a Steward unto the Earl of Lincoln; but then 
growing desirous of a more private Life, he retired unto 
Boston,? where the Acquaintance and Ministry of Mr. 
Cotton became no little Satisfaction unto him. Never- 
theless the Earl of Lincoln found that he could be no 
more without Mr. Dudley, than Pharaoh without his 
Joseph, and prevailed with him to resume his former 
Employment, until the Storm of Persecution upon the 
Non-Conformists caused many Men of great Worth to 
Transport themselves into New-England. Mr. Dudley 
was not the least of the Worthy Men that bore a part 
in this Transportation, in hopes that in an American 
Wilderness they might peaceably attend and enjoy 
the pure Worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the 
first Undertakers for that Plantation came to know 
him, they soon saw that in him, that caused them to 
chuse him their Deputy-Governour, in which Capacity he 
arrived unto these Coasts in the Year 1630. and had 
no small share in the Distresses of that Young Plan- 
tation, whereof an account by him written to the Coun- 
tess of Lincoln has been since Published unto the 
World.? Here his Wisdom in managing the most 
weighty and thorny Affairs was often signalized: His 


1 Cf. p. xliv ante. 

2 In Lincolnshire, England. 

3 This famous letter has been many times reprinted. Cf. A. Jones, 
op. cit., 437, note, and 437-452. 


SUCCESSORS 89 


Justice was a perpetual Terror to Evil Doers: His 
Courage procured his being the first Major-General 
of the Colony, when they began to put themselves 
into a Military Figure. His Orthodox Piety had no 
little Influence into the Deliverance of the Country, 
from the Contagion of the Famalistical ! Errors, which 
had like to have overturned all. He dwelt first at 
Cambridge; but upon Mr. Hooker’s removal to Hartford, 
he removed to Ispwich; nevertheless, upon the Impor- 
tunity and Necessity of the Government for his coming 
to dwell nearer the Center of the whole, he fixed his 
Habitation at Roxbury, Two Miles out of Boston, where 
he was always at Hand upon the Publick Exigencies. 
Here he died, July 31. 1653. in the Seventy-Seventh 
Year of his Age; and there were found after his Death, 
in his Pocket, these Lines of his own Composing, which 
may serve to make up what may be wanting in the 
Character already given him. 


Dim Eyes, Deaf Ears, Cold Stomach, shew 
My Dissolution ts in View. 

Eleven times Seven near liv'd have I, 

And now God calls, I willing Die. 

My Shutile’s shot, my Race is run, 

My Sun is set, my Day 15 done. 

My Span is measur’d, Tale 1s told, 

My Flower 1s faded, and grown old. 

My Dream 1s vanish’d, Shadow’s fied, 
My Soul with Christ, my Body Dead. 
Farewel Dear Wife, Children and Friends, 
Hate Heresie, make Blessed Ends. 

Bear Poverty, live with good Men; 

So shall we live with Joy agen. 


1Faimilistical. Cf. note I, p. 70, ante. 


go MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 
Let Men of God in Courts and Churches watch 


O’re such as do a Toleration hatch, 

Lest that Ill Egg bring forth a Cockatrice, 

To poison all with Hereste and Vice. 

If Men be left, and otherwise Combine, 

My Epitaph’s, I DY’D NO LIBERTINE.? 


But when I mention the Poetry of this Gentleman as 
one of his Accomplishments, I must not leave un- 
mentioned the Fame with which the Poems of one 
descended from him have been Celebrated in both 
Englands. If the rare Learning of a Daughter, was not 
the least of those bright things that adorn’d no less a 
Judge of England than Sir Thomas More; it must now 
be said, that a Judge of New-England, namely, Thomas 
Dudley, Esq; had a Daughter (besides other Children) 
to be a Crown unto him. Reader, America justly ad- 
mires the Learned Women of the other Hemisphere. 
She has heard of those that were Tutoresses to the 
Old Professors of all Philosophy: She hath heard of 
Hippatia, who formerly taught the Liberal Arts; 
and of Sarocchia, who more lately was very often the 
Moderatrix in the Disputations of the Learned Men 
of Rome: She has been told of the Three Corinne’s, 
which equal’d, if not excell’d, the most Celebrated 
Poet of their Time: She has been told of the Empress 
Eudoxia, who Composed Poetical Paraphrases on 
Divers Parts of the Bible; and of Rosuida, who wrote 
the Lives of Holy Men; and of Pamphilia, who wrote 


1In the MS. life of Dudley, by Cotton Mather, this poem is given 
in a slightly different version. Apparently Mather revised it for in- 
sertion in the Magnalia. The one important change is in the last 
a which reads in the MS.: “Mine epitaph’s—I did no hurt to 
thine.” 


SUCCESSORS gI 


other Histories unto the Life: The Writings of the most 
Renowned Anna Maria Schurman, have come over 
unto her. But she now prays, that into such Cata- 
logues of Authoresses, as Beverovicius, Hottinger, and 
Voetius, have given unto the World,! there may be a 
room now given unto Madam ANN BRADSTREET, 
the Daughter of our Governour Dudley, and the Consort 
of our Governour Bradstreet, whose Poems, divers times 
Printed, have afforded a grateful Entertainment unto 
the Ingenious, and a Monument for her Memory 
beyond the Stateliest Marbles. It was upon these 
Poems that an Ingenious Person bestowed this Epigram: 


Now I believe Tradition, which doth call 

The Muses, Virtues, Graces, Females ail. 
Only they are not Nine, Eleven, or Three; 

Our Auth’ress proves them but an Unity. 
Mankind, take up some Blushes on the score; 
Monopolize Perfection hence no more. 

In your own Aris confess your selves outdone; 
The Moon hath totally Eclips’d the Sun: 

Not with her Sable Mantle muffling him, 

But her bright Silver makes his Gold look dim: 


1 Hippatia is Hypatia, neo-Platonic philosopher of the énd of the 
fourth century; Sarocchia or Sarrochia was a Neapolitan poetess in the 
beginning of the seventeenth century; Corinna was a Greek poetess 
about the beginning of the fifth century B. C., and some writers 
mention another Corinna of Thebes and one of Thespiz; Eudoxia 
was the Roman empress Eudocia, who lived about 393-460; Rosuida 
(Hrotswitha, Hrosvitha, or Hrotsuit), c. 935-c. 1000, wrote poetical 
chronicles and six Latin comedies; Pamphilia was Pamphila, a his- 
torian in the time of Nero, and Anna Maria von Schurmann, 1607- 
1678, was a German artist and scholar. Beverovicius was Jan van 
Beverwyck, Dutch physician, 1594-1647; John Henry Hottinger 
was a Swiss theologian and historian, 1620-1667, and Gisbert Voet, 
a Dutch theologian, lived 1589-1677. 


g2 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Just as his Beams force our pale Lamps to wink, 
And Earthly Fires within their Ashes shrink.} 


What else might be said of Mr. Dudley, the Readers 


shall Construe from the Ensuing 


EPITAPH. 


Helluo Librorum, Lectorum Bibliotheca 
Communts, Sacre Syllabus Historie. 
Ad Mensam Comes, hinc facundus, Rostra disertus, 
(Non Cumulus verbis, pondus, Acumen erat,) 
Morum acris Censor, validus Defensor amansq; 
Et Sane &§ Cane Catholice fidet. 
Angli-novt Columen, Summum Decus atg; Senatus; 
Thomas Dudleius, conditur hoc Tumulo. Eva. 


§2. Inthe Year 1635. at the Anniversary Election, 
the Freemen of the Colony testified their grateful 
Esteem of Mr. John Haines, a Worthy Gentleman, 
who had been very Serviceable to the Interests of the 
Colony, by chusing him their Governour. Of him in an 


1 These lines appeared in the second edition of Anne Bradstreet’s 
Tenth Muse, which came out in Boston in 1678, with the title Several 
Poems, etc. They are printed with the signature B. W., which prob- 
ably represents Benjamin Woodbridge. Cotton Mather, in reprint- 
ing the lines, has evidently tried his hand at editing them. In 
line 3 he prints or for nor, line 4 an for one, and in line 6 he inserts 
hence. 

2“Tevourer of books; library of chosen things; compendium of 
sacred history; companion for the feast, hence eloquent; eloquent on 
the rostrum (he was weighty not with the heaping up of words, but 
with keenness); sharp censor of morals; stout defender and lover of 
a sane and ancient catholic faith; support of New England and the 
chief ornament of its councils; Thomas Dudley is embalmed in this 
tomb.” William Hubbard, in his General History of New England, 
finished about 1680, gives this epitaph with the signature N. R., 
instead of E. R. The authorship seems to lie between Nathaniel and 
Ezekiel Rogers, both early New England divines. 


SUCCESSORS 93 


Ancient Manuscript I find this Testimony given; 
To him 1s New-England many ways beholden; had he 
done no more but stilled a Storm of Dtssention, which 
broke forth in the beginning of his Government; he had 
done enough to Endear our Hearts unto him, and to 
account that Day happy when he took the Reins of Govern- 
ment into his Hands. But this Pious, Humble, Well- 
bred Gentleman, removing afterwards into Connecticut, 
he took his turn with Mr. Edward Hopkins, in being 
every other Year the Governour of that Colony. And 
as he was a great Friend of Peace while he lived, so at 
his Death he entred into that Peace which attends the 
End of the perfect and upright Man, leaving behind him 
the Character sometimes given of a Greater, tho’ not 
a Better, Man, [Vespasian] Bonis Legibus multa correxit, 
sed exemplo probe vite plus effecit apud populum.' 

§ 3. Near [wenty Ships from Europe visited New- 
England in the Year 1635. and in one of them was Mr. 
Henry Vane, (afterward Sir Henry Vane) an Accom- 
plished Young Gentleman, whose Father was much 
against his coming to New-England; but the King, upon 
iereeetion of his Disposition, commanded him to 
allow his Son’s Voyage hither, with a Consent for his 
continuing Three Years in this Part of the World. 
Although his Business had some Relation to the 
Plantation of Connecticut, yet in the Year 1636. the 
Massachuset-Colony chose him their Governour. And 
now, Reader, I am as much a Seeker for his Character, 


1“ He corrected many things by good laws, but accomplished more 
among the people by the example of a good life.” 

2 For Vane, see, for example, J. K. Hosmer, The Life of Young Sir 
Henry Vane (Boston, 1888). Mather probably did not approve 
of Vane’s views, and the account of him shows some adroitness in 
its avoidance of any definite expression of opinion. 


94 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


as many have taken him to be a Seeker in Religion, 
while no less Persons than Dr. Manton have not been 
to seek for the Censure of A Wicked Book, with which 
they have noted the Mystical Divinity, in the Book of 
this Knight, Entituled, The Retired Man’s Meditations.” 
There has been a strange variety of Translations be- 
stowed upon the Hebrew Names of some Animals 
mentioned in the Bible: Kippod, for Instance, which 
we translate a Bittern; R. Salomon will have to be an 
Owl, but Luther will have it be an Eagle, while Paynin 
will have it be an Hedg-hog, but R. Kimchi will have it 
a Snail; such a Variety of Opinions and Resentments 
has the Name of this Gentleman fallen under; while 
some have counted him an Eminent Christian, and 
others have counted him almost an Heretick; some 
have counted him a Renowned Patriot, and others 
an Infamous Traitor. If Barak signifie both to Bless 
and to Curse; and Evdoryewv® be of the same Significancy 
with BAacdnpewy,* in such Philology as that of Suidas 
and Hesychius;’ the Usage which the Memory of this 
Gentleman has met withal, seems to have been Accom- 
modated unto that Indifferency of Signification in the 
Terms for such an Usage. 


On the one side, I find an Old New-English Manu- 


1 


1Qne not contented with any creed or sect, but seeking a more 
perfect one. Roger Williams, also, was regarded as a “seeker.” 

2 This book of Vane’s was published in 1655. Vane’s religious 
views expressed here and elsewhere were freely attacked by the 
divines of the time, who found them vague, and, apparently, danger- 
ous, in their hostility to any organized church and their tolerant 
tone toward all sects. Dr. Manton was an eminent Presbyterian in 
England, 1620-1677. 

3 “To praise.” 4“°To slander.” 

’ Suidas, eleventh century Greek lexicographer, and Hesychius, 
Alexandrine grammarian, c. 380. 


SUCCESSORS 95 


script thus reflecting, His Election will remain as a 
Blemish to their Judgments who did Elect him, while 
New-England remains a Nation; for he coming from 
Old-England, a Young Unexperienced Gentleman, 
(and as young in Judgment as he was in Years) by the 
Industry of some that could do much, and thought by him 
to play their own Game, was presently Elected Governour; 
and before he was scarce warm in his Seat, began to 
Broach New Tenets; and these were agitated with as much 
Violence, as if the Welfare of New-England must have 
been Sacrificed rather than these not take place. But 
the Wisdom of the State put a Period to his Government; 
necessity caused them to undo the Works of their own 
Hands, and leave us a Caveat, that all good Men are not 
fit for Government. But on the other side, the Historian 
who has Printed The Trial of Sir Henry Vane, Knt., 
at the King’s Bench, Westminster, June 2. and 6. 1662. 
with other occasional Speeches; also his Speech and 
Prayer on the Scaffold, has given us in him the Picture 
of nothing less than an Heroe.!_ He seems indeed by that 
Story to have suffered Hardly enough, but no Man can 
deny that he suffered Bravely: the English Nation has 
not often seen more of Roman, (and indeed more than 
Roman) Gallantry, out-facing Death in the most pom- 
pous Terrors of it. A great Royalist, present, at his 
Decollation, swore, He died like a Prince: He could 
say, I bless the Lord I am so far from being affrighted 
at Death, that I find it rather shrink from me, than I 
from it! He could say, Ten Thousand Deaths rather 
than Defile my Conscience; the Chastity and Purity of 
which I value beyond all this World; I would not for 
Ten Thousand Worlds part with the Peace and Satis- 
faction I have in my own Heart. When mention was 
1 The book referred to was published anonymously in 1662. 


96 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


made of the Difficult Proceeding against him, all his 
reply was, Alas, what a Do do they keep to make a poor 
Creature like his Saviour! On the Scaffold they did, 
by the Blast of Trumpets in his Face, with much 
Incivility, hinder him from speaking what he intended; 
which Incivility he aforehand suspecting, committed 
a true Copy of it unto a Friend before his going thither; 
the last Words whereof were these, 4s my last Words 
I leave this with you, That as the Present Storm we now 
lye under, and the dark Clouds that yet hang over the 
Reformed Churches of Christ, (which are coming thicker 
and thicker for a Season) were not unforeseen by me for 
many Years past; (as some Writings of mine declare) 
so the coming of Christ in these Clouds, in Order to a 
speedy and sudden revival of his Cause, and spreading 
his Kingdom over the Face of the whole Earth, 1s most 
clear to the Eye of my Faith, even that Faith 1n which 
I Die. His Execution was June 14. 1662. about the 
Fiftieth Year of his Age. 

§4. After the Death of Mr. Dudley, the Notice 
and Respect of the Colony fell chiefly on Mr. John 
Endicot, who after many Services done for the Colony, 
even before it was yet a Colony, as well as when he 
saw it grown into a Populous Nation, under his Prudent 
and Equal Government, expired in a good Old Age, 
and was Honourably Interr’d at Boston, March 23. 1665. 

The Gentleman that succeeded Mr. Endicot, was 
Mr. Richard Bellingham, one who was bred a Lawyer, 
and one who lived beyond Eighty, well esteemed for 
his laudable Qualities; but as the Thebans made the 
Statues of their Magistrates without Hands, importing 
that they must be no Takers; in this fashion must be 
formed the Statue for this Gentleman; for among all 
his Virtues, he was noted for none more, than for his 


SIMON BRADSTREET 97 


notable and perpetual hatred of a Bribe, which gave 
him, with his Country, the Reputation of Old Claimed 
by Pericles, to be, prroTronN Te Kai ypnuatov Kpelocwr: 
Civitatis Amans, &F ad pecunias Invictus.1 And as he 
never took any from any one /iving; so he neither could 
nor would have given any to Death; but in the latter 
end of the Year 1672. he had his Soul gathered not with 
Sinners, whose Right Hand 1s full of Bribes, but with 
such as walk in their uprightness. 

The Gentleman that succeeded Mr. Bellingham, 
was Mr. John Leveret, one to whom the Affections of 
the Freemen were signalized, in his quick advances 
through the lesser Stages of Office and Honour unto 
the highest in the Country; and one whose Courage had 
been as much Recommended by Martial Actions 
abroad in his Younger Years, as his Wisdom and Justice 
were now at Home in his Elder. The Anniversary 
Election constantly kept him at the Helm from the 
time of his first Sitting there, until March 16. 1678. 
when Mortality having first put him on severe Trials 
of his Passive-Courage, (much more difficult than the 
Active) in pains of the Stone, released him. 


Pater Patrie:? Or, The LIFE of SIMON BRAD- 
STREET, £sq; 


Extinctus amabitur idem.® 


he: Gentleman that succeeded Mr. Leveret, was 





Mr. Simon Bradstreet, the Son of a Minister in 

Lincolnshire, who was always a Non-Conformist 

at home, as well as when Preacher at Middleburgh 

abroad. Him the New-Englanders in their Addresses full 
1 “A lover of the state, invincible by bribes.” 


2 “Father of the country.” 
3 “He shall be loved even when dead.” 


98 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


of profound Respects unto him, have with good reason 
called, The venerable Mordecai of his Country. He 
was born at Horbling, March 1603. His Father (who 
was the Son of a Suffolk Gentleman of a fine Estate) 
was one of the First Fellows in Jmmanuel-Colledge, 
under Dr. Chaderton, and one afterwards highly esteemed 
by Mr. Cotton, and by Dr. Preston. Our Bradstreet 
was brought up at the Grammar-School, until he was 
about Fourteen Years Old; and then the Death of his 
Father put a stop for the present unto the Designs of 
his further Education., But according to the Faith 
of his Dying Father, that he should be well provided for, 
he was within Two or Three Years after this taken 
into the Religious Family of the Earl of Lincoln, (the 
best Family of any Nobleman then in England,) where 
he spent about Eight Years under the Direction of 
Mr. Thomas Dudley, sustaining successively divers 
Offices. Dr. Preston then (who had been my Lord’s 
Tutor) moved my Lord, that Mr. Bradstreet might 
have their permission to come unto Jmmanuel Colledge, 
in the Capacity of Governour to the Lord Rich, the 
Son of the Earl of Warwick; which they granting, he 
went with the Doctor to Cambridge, who provided a 
Chamber for him, with Advice that he should apply 
himself to Study until my Lord’s Arrival. But he 
afterwards in a Writing of his, now in my Hands, 
made this humble Complaint; I met with many Obstacles 
to my Study in Cambridge; the Earl of Lincoln had a 
Brother there, who often called me forth upon Pastimes. 
Divers Masters of Art, and other Scholars also, constantly 
met, where we spent most part of the Afternoons many 
times 1n Discourse to little purpose or profit; but that 
seemed an easte and pleasant Life then, which too late 
I repented. My Lord Rich not coming to the University, 


SIMON BRADSTREET 99 


Mr. Bradstreet returned after a Year to the Earl of 
Lincolns; and Mr. Dudley then removing to Boston,! 
his Place of Steward unto the Earl was conferred on Mr. 
Bradstreet. Afterwards he with much ado obtained 
the Earl’s leave to Answer the Desires of the Aged and 
Pious Countess of Warwick, that he would accept the 
Stewardship of her Noble Family, which as the former 
he discharged with an Exemplary Discretion and 
Fidelity. Here he Married the Daughter of Mr. 
Dudley,* by whose perswasion he came in Company 
with him to New-England, where he spent all the rest of 
his Days, Honourably serving his Generation. It was 
counted a singular Favour of Heaven unto Richard 
Chamond, Esq; one of England’s Worthies, that he was 
a Justice of Peace near Threescore Years;* but of Simon 
Bradstreet, Esq; one of New-England’s Worthies, there 
can more than this be said; for he was chosen a Magis- 
trate of New-England before New-England it self came 
into New-England; even in their first great Voyage 
thither 4nno 1630. and so he continued annually 
chosen; sometimes also their Secretary, and at last 
their Governour, until the Colony had a share in the 
general Shipwrack of Charters, which the Reign of 
King Charles II. brought upon the whole English 
Nation.*’ Mr. Joseph Dudley was placed, Anno 168s. 
as President over the Territory for a few Months, when 
the Judgment that was entred against the Charter 
gave unto the late King James II. an opportunity to 
make what Alterations he pleased upon the Order of 


1 England. 

2 The poetess, Anne Dudley Bradstreet. 

3 Mather here draws on Thomas Fuller’s Worthies of England. See 
1, 329 (ed. 1840). 

4 Cf. p. xlv, ante. 


100 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


things, under which the Country had so long been 
Flourishing. But when the short Presidentship of that 
New-English and well Accomplished Gentleman, the 
Son of Mr. Thomas Dudley abovementioned, was 
expired, I am not in a Disposition here to relate what 
was the Condition of the Colony, until the Revolution 
whereto their Condition compell’d them. Only I 
have sometimes, not without Amazement, thought of 
the Representation which a Celebrated Magician made 
unto Catherine de Medicis, the French Queen, whose 
Impious Curiosity led her to desire of him a Magical 
Exhibition of all the Kings that had hitherto Reigned 
in France, and yet-were to Reign. The Shapes of all the 
Kings, even unto the Husband of that Queen succes- 
sively showed themselves, in the Enchanted Circle, in 
which that Conjurer had made his Invocations, and 
they took as many Turns as there had been Years in 
their Government. The Kings that were to come, did 
then in like manner sucessively come upon the Stage, 
namely, Francis II. Charles 1X. Henry III. Henry IV. 
which being done, then Two Cardinals, Richlieu and 
Mazarine, in Red Hats, became visible in the Spectacle: 
But after those Cardinals, there entred WOLVES, 
BEARS, TYGERS, and LIONS, to consummate the 
Entertainment. If the People of New-England had 
not Imagined, that a Number of as Rapacious Animals 
were at last come into their Government, I suppose they 
would not have made such a Revolution as they did, 
on April 18. 1689. in conformity to the Pattern which 
the English Nation was then setting before them. 
Nevertheless, | have nothing in this Paragraph of our 
History to Report of it, but that Mr. Bradstreet was at 
this time alive; whose Paternal Compassions for a 
Country, thus remarkably his own, would not permit 


SIMON BRADSTREET 1or 


him to decline his Return unto his former Seat in the 
Government, upon the Unanimous Invitation of the 
People thereunto. It was a Remark then generally 
made upon him, That though he were then well towards 
Ninety Years of Age, his intellectual force was hardly 
abated, but he retained a Vigour and Wisdom that would 
have recommended a younger Man to the Government of a 
greater Colony. And the wonderful Difficulties, through 
which the Colony under his discreet Conduct waded, 
until the Arrival of his Excellency, Sir William Phips, 
with a Commission for the Government, and a New 
Charter in the Year 1692. gave a Remarkable Demon- 
stration of it. Yea, this Honourable Nestor of New- 
England, in the Year 1696. was yet alive; and as 
Georgius Leontinus, who lived until he was an Hundred 
and Eight Years of Age, being asked by what means 
he attained unto such an Age, answered, By my not 
Living Voluptuously; thus this excellent Person attained 
his good old Age, in part, By Living very Temperately. 
And the New-Englanders would have counted it their 
Satisfaction, if like Arganthonius, who had been Four- 
score Years the Governour of the Tartessians, he might 
have lived unto the Age of an Hundred and Twenty; 
or, even unto the Age of Johannes de Temporibus, who 
was Knighted by the Emperour Charlemaign, and yet 
was Living till the Emperour Conrade, and saw, they 
say, no fewer Years than Three Hundred Threescore 
and One. Though, To be Dissolved and be with Christ, 
was the Satisfaction which this our Macrobius himself 
was with a weary Soul now waiting and longing for; 
and Christ at length granted it unto him, on March 27. 
1697. Then it was, that one of the oldest Servants that 
God and the King had upon Earth, drew his Last, 
in the very place where he drew his First, American 


102 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Breath. He Died at Salem, in a Troublesome Time, 
and entred into everlasting Peace. And in Imitation 
of what the Roman Orator said upon the Death of 
Crassus, I will venture to say, Putt hoc, luctuosum suts, 
Acerbum Patrie, Grave Bonis Omnibus: Sed 11 tamen 
Rempublicam casus Secutt sunt, ut mihi non Erepta 
Bradstreeto Vita, sed donata mors esse videatur.} 

The Epitaph on that famous Lawyer, Simon Pistorius 
we will now Employ for this Eminently Prudent and 
Upright Administrator of our Laws. 


EPITAPH. 
SIMON BRADSTREET. 


Quod Mortale fuit, Tellus tenet; Inclyta Fama 
Nomuintis haud ullo stat violanda Die.? 


And Add, 


Extinctum luget quem tota Nov-Anglia Patrem, 
O Quantum Claudit parvula Terra Virum! 8 


1“ This [death] was most lamentable for his family, bitter to the 
fatherland, a woe to all good men; but yet such calamities have come 
to the state since then, that it does not seem to me as though life were 
snatched from Bradstreet, but as though death were given to him.” 
The quotation is from Cicero, altered. 

2 “Earth holds what was mortal; the glorious renown of his name 
stands against the ravaging of time.” Simon Pistoris, or Pistorius, 
1489-1562, was a famous German lawyer. 

3“ All New England mourns a dead father; how great a man a 
little earth encloses.” 


ASSISTANTS 103 


CHAP. VI 
wei *y3 Id est, Viri Animati:! Or, ASSISTANTS. 


HE Freemen of New-England had a great vari- 
ety of Worthy Men, among whom they might 


pick and chuse a Number of MAGISTRATES 
to be the Assistants of their GOVERNOURS, both 
in directing the General Affairs of the Land, and in 
dispensing of Justice unto the People. But they wisely 
made few Alterations in their Annual Elections; and 
they thereby shew’d their Satisfaction in the wise and 
good Conduct of those whom they had Elected. If 
they called some few of their Magistrates from the 
Plough to the Bench, so the Old Romans did some of 
their Dictators; yea, the greatest Kings in the World 
once carried Plough-shares on the top of their Scepters. 
However, the Inhabitants of New-England never 
were so unhappy as the Inhabitants of Norcia, a Town 
scarce I'en Leagues from Rome; where they do at this 
Day chuse their own Magistrates, but use an exact 
Care, That no Man who is able to Write, or to Read, shall 
be capable of any share in the Government. The Magis- 
trates of New-England have been of a better Education. 
Indeed, several deserving Persons, who were joined 
as Associates and Commissioners unto these, for the 
more effectual Execution of the Laws in some Emergen- 
cies, cannot be brought into our Catalogue; but the 
Names of all our Magistrates, with the Times when I 
find their first Advancement unto that Character, are 
these. 


1“T7 iving men,” 


104 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


MAGISTRATES of the Massachuset-Colony. 


John Winthrop, Gov. 
Thomas Dudley, Deputy Gov. 
Matthew Cradock, 
Thomas Goff, 

Sir Richard Saltonstal, 
Isaac Johnson, 
Samuel Aldersley, 
John Venn, 

John Humfrey, 
Simon Whercomb, 
Increase Nowel, 
Richard Perry, 
Nathanael Wright, 
Samuel Vassal, 
Theophilus Eaton, 
Thomas Adams, 
Thomas Hutchins, 
George Foxcroft, 
William Vassal, 
William Pinchon, 
John Pocock, 
Christopher Cowlson, 
William Coddington, 
Simon Bradstreet, 
Thomas Sharp, 
Roger Ludlow, 
Edward Rossiter, 
John Endicot, 

John Winthrop, Jun. 
John Haines, 
Richard Billingham,} 


1 Bellingham. 


1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1629 
1630 
1630 
1630 
1632 
1634 
1635 





Atterton' Hough, 
Richard Dummer, 
Henry Vane, 

Roger Hartackenden,? 
Israel Stoughton, 
Richard Saltonstal, 
Thomas Flint, 
Samuel Symons, 
William Hibbons, 
William Tynge, 
Herbert Pelham, 
Robert Bridges, 
Francis Willoughby, 
Thomas Wiggan, 
Edward Gibbons, 
John Glover, 

Daniel Gookin, 
Daniel Denison, 
Simon Willard, 
Humphrey Atherton, 
Richard Russel, 
Thomas Danforth, 
William Hawthorn, 
Eleazer Lusher, 
John Leveret, 

John Pinchon, 
Edward Tyng, 
William Stoughton, 
Thomas Clark, 
Joseph Dudley, 
Peter Bulkley, 
Nathanael Saltonstal, 


1 Atherton. 
2 Harlakenden. 


ASSISTANTS 


105 


1635 
1635 
1636 
1636 
1637 
1637 
1643 
1643 
1643 
1643 
1645 
1647 
1650 
1650 
1650 
1652 
1652 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1659 


1659 
1662 


1662 
1665 
1665 
1668 
1671 
1673 
1676 
1677 
1679 


106 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Humphrey Davy, 1679 
James Russel, 1680 
Samuel Nowel, 1680 
Peter Tilton, 1680 
John Richards, 1680 
John Hull, 1680 
Bartholomew Gidney, 1680 
Thomas Savage, 1680 
William Brown, 1680 
Samuel Appleton, 1681 
Robert Ptke, 1682 
Daniel Fisher, 1683 
John Woodbridge, 1683 
Elisha Cook, 1684 
William Johnson, 1684 
John Hawthorn, 1684 
Elisha Hutchinson, 1684 
Samuel Sewal, 1684 
Isaac Addington, 1686 
John Smith, 1686 


Major-Generals of the Military Forces in the Colony, 
successively chosen. 


Thomas Dudley. 
John Endicot. 
Edward Gibbons. 
Robert Sedgwick. 
Humfry Atherton. 
Daniel Denison. 
John Leveret. 
Daniel Gookin. 


ASSISTANTS 107 


Secretaries of the Colony, successively chosen. 


William Burgis. 
Simon Bradstreet. 
Increase Nowel. 


Edward Rawson. 


That these Names are proper and worthy to be 
found in our Church-History, will be acknowledged, 
when it 1s considered, not only that they were the 
Members of Congregational Churches, and by the Mem- 
bers of the Churches chosen to be the Rulers of the 
Commonwealth; and that their exemplary Behaviour 
in their Magistracy was generally such as to adorn the 
Doctrine of God our Saviour, and according to the Old 
Jewish Wishes, prohibitum est Homint, instar principis 
Dominart super populum, &F cum elatione Spiritus, 
Sed, ANW ADSI cum mansuetudine ac Timore:! But 
also that their Love to, and Zeal for, and Care of these 
Churches, was not the least part of their Character. 

The Instances of their Concern for the Welfare of 
the Churches were innumerable. I will single out but 
one from the rest, because of some Singular Subser- 
viency to the Designs of our Church-History, therein 
to be propos’d. Tl do it only by Transcribing an 
Instrument, published 4nno 1668. in such Terms as 
these. 


1“Tt is forbidden for a man to rule over a people like a prince, and 
with exaltation of spirit, but [he should rule] with mildness and fear.” 


108 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


To the Elders and Minasters of every Town within the 
Jurisdiction of the Massachusets in New-England, 
the Governour and Council sendeth Greeting. 


Reverend and Beloved in the Lord, 


E find in the Examples of Holy Scripture, 

\ \ ‘that Magistrates have not only excited and 

‘commanded all the People under their 
‘Government, to seek the Lord God of their Fathers, 
‘and do the Law and Commandment, (2. Chron. 14. 2, 
*3, 4. Ezra 7. 25, 26, 27.) but also stirred up and sent 
‘forth the Levites, accompanied with other Principal 
‘Men, to Teach the good Knowledge of the Lord through- 
‘out all the Cities, (2. Chron. 17. 6, 7, 8, 9.) which En- 
‘deavours have been Crowned with the Blessing of 
“God. 

‘Also we find that our Brethren of the Congregational 
‘Perswasion in England, have made a good Profession 
‘in their Book, Entituled, 4 Declaration of their Faith 
‘and Order, (Page 59. Sect. 14.) where they say, That 
‘altho’ Pastors and Teachers stand especially related 
‘unto their particular Churches, yet they ought not to 
“neglect others Living within their Parochial Bounds; but 
‘besides their constant publick Preaching to them, they 
‘ought to enquire after their profiting by the Word, In- 
‘structing them in, and Pressing upon them, (whether 
“Young or Old) the great Doctrines of the Gospel, even 
‘personally and particularly, so far as their Strength and 
‘Time will permit. 

‘We hope that sundry of you need not a Spur in 
‘these things, but are conscienciously careful to do 
‘your Duty. Yet, forasmuch as we have cause to 
‘fear that there is too much Neglect in many places, 
‘notwithstanding the Laws long since provided therein, 


ASSISTANTS 109g 


‘we do therefore think it our Duty to emit this Dec- 
‘laration unto you,earnestly Desiring, and, in the Bowels 
‘of our Lord Jesus, requiring you to be very Diligent 
‘and Careful to Catechise and Instruct all People 
‘(especially the Youth) under your Charge, in the sound 
‘Principles of Christian Religion; and that not only 
‘in Publick, but privately from House to House,as Blessed 
‘Paul did; (Act. 20. 20.) or at least, Three, Four, or 
‘more Families meeting together, as Time and Strength 
‘may permit; taking to your Assistance such godly 
‘and grave Persons as to you may seem most expedient: 
‘And also that you Labour to Inform your selves (as 
‘much as may be meet) how your Hearers do profit 
‘by the Word of God, and how their Conversations 
‘do agree therewith; and whether the Youth are Taught 
‘to Read the English Tongue: Taking all occasions 
‘to apply suitable Exhortations particularly unto them, 
‘for the Rebuke of those that do evil, and the Encouragement 
‘of them that do well. 

“The effectual and constant Prosecution hereof, 
‘we hope will have a Tendency to promote the Salvation 
‘of Souls; to suppress the Growth of Sin and Profane- 
‘ness; to beget more Love and Unity among the People, 
‘and more Reverence and Esteem of the Ministry: And 
‘it will assuredly be to the enlargement of your Crown, 
‘and Recompence in Ezernal Glory. 


Given at Boston, the toth of March, 1668. by the Gover- 
nour and Council, and by them Ordered to be Printed, 
and sent accordingly. 


Edward Rawson, Secret. 


110 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


CHAP SVL 


Publicola Christianus.1 The LIFE of EDWARD 
HOPKINS, £sq; Governour of CONNECTICUT- 
COLONY. 


Superiores sint, quit supertores esse sciunt.” 


Sate HEN the Great God of Heaven had car- 
WW ried his Peculiar People into a Wilder- 

ness, the Theocracy, wherein he became 

(as he was for that Reason stiled) The Lord of Hosts, 
unto them and the Four Squadrons of their Army, was 
most eminently display’d in his Enacting of their Laws, 
his Directing of their Wars, and his Electing and Inspir- 
ing of their Judges. In some resemblance hereunto, 
when Four Colonies of Christians had marched like so 
many Hosts under the Conduct of the good Spirit of our 
Lord Jesus Christ into an American Wilderness, there 
were several Instances wherein that Army of Confessors 
was under a Theocracy: For their Laws were still 
Enacted, and their Wars were still Directed by the 
Voice of God, as far as they understood it, speaking 
from the Oracle of the Scriptures; and though their 
Judges were still Elected by themselves, and not Inspired 
with such extraordinary Influences as carried them of 
Old, yet these also being singularly furnished and 
offered by the special Providence of God unto the Goy- 
ernment of his New-English People, were so eminently 
acted ® by His Graces, and His Precepts, in the Discharge 
of their Government, that the Blessed People were 
still sensibly Governed by the Lord of All. Now among 

1 “Christian patriot.” 


2 “They may be superiors, who know how to be superiors.” 
3 J. ¢., actuated. 


EDWARD HOPKINS III 


the First Judges of New-England, was EDWARD 
HOPKINS, Esq; in whose time’the Colony of Connecti- 
cut was favoured with Judges as at the first; and put 
under the Power of those with whom it was a Maxim, 
Gratius est pietatis Nomen, quam potestatis.} 

§ 2. The Descent and Breeding of Mr. EDWARD 
HOPKINS, (who was Born, I think, near Shrowsbury, 
about the Year 1600.) first fitted him for the Condition 
of a Turky-Merchant, in London; where he lived several 
Years in good Fashion and Esteem, until a powerful 
Party in the Church of England, then resolving not 
only to separate from the Communion of all the Faithful 
that were Averse to certain confessedly unscriptural 
and uninstituted Rites in the Worship of God, but also 
to Persecute with destroying Severities those that were 
Non-Conformists thereunto, compelled a considerable 
Number of good Men to seek a shelter among the 
Salvages of America. Among these, and with his 
Excellent Father-in-Law, Mr. Theophilus Eaton, he 
came to New-England; where then removing from the 
Massachuset-Bay unto Hartford upon Connecticut- 
River, he became a Ruler and Pillar of that Colony, 
during the time of his Abode in the Country. 

§ 3. In his Government he acquitted himself as 
the Solomon of his Colony, to whom God gave Wisdom 
and Knowledge, that he might go out and come in before 
the People; and as he was the Head, so he was the Heart 
of the People, for the Resolution to do Well, which he 
maintained among them. An unjust Judge is, as one 
says, A cold Fire, a dark Sun, a dry Sea, an ungood 
God, a contradictio in Adjecto 2 Far from such was our 
Hopkins; no, he was, dixatov éurvrvyov, a meer piece 

1 “A reputation for piety is dearer than a reputation for power.” 

#~A* paradox. 


112 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


of Living Justice. And,as he had no separate Interests 
of his own, so he pursued their /nterests with such an 
unspotted and successful Fidelity, that they might 
call him as the Tribe of Benjamin did their Leader in 
the Wilderness, Abidan, that is to say, Our Father 1s 
Judge. New-England saw little Dawnings, and Em- 
blems, and Earnests of the Day, That the greatness of 
the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given unto 
the People of the Saints of the most High, when such a 
Saint as our HOPKINS was one of its Governours. 
And the Felicity which a Great Man has Prognosti- 
cated for Europe,~ That God will stir up some happy 
Governour in some Country 1n Christendom, indued 
with Wisdom and Consideration, who shall discern the 
true Nature of Godliness and Christianity, and the Neces- 
sity and Excellency of serious Religion, and shall place 
his Honour and Felicity 1n pleasing God, and doing 
Good, and attaining Everlasting Happiness, and shall 
subject all Worldly Respects unto these High and Glorious 
Ends: This was now Exemplified in America. 

$4. Most Exemplary was his Piety and his Charity; 
and while he governed others by the Laws of God, he 
did himself yield a profound Subjection unto those 
Laws. He was exemplarily watchful over his own 
Behaviour, and made a continual Contemplation of, 
and Preparation for Death, to be the Character of his 
Life. It was his manner to Rise early, even before 
Day; to enjoy the Devotions of his Closet: after which 
he spent a considerable time in Reading, and Opening, 
and Applying the Word of God unto his Family, and 
then Praying with them: And he had one particular 
way to cause Attention in the People of his Family, 
which was to ask any Person that seemed Careless in 
the midst of his Discourse, What was it that I Read or 


EDWARD HOPKINS 113 


Spoke last? Whereby he Habituated them unto such 
Attention, that they were still usually able to give a 
ready Account. But as for his Prayers, they were not 
only frequent, but so fervent also, that he frequently 
fell a Bleeding at the Nose through the Agony of Spirit 
with which he labour’d in them. And, especially when 
imploring such Spiritual Blessings, as, That God would 
grant in the End of our Lives, the End of our Hopes, even 
the Salvation of our Souls, he would be so Transported, 
that the Observing and Judicious Hearers would say 
sometimes upon it, Surely this Man can’t be long out of 
Heaven. Moreover, in his Neighbourhood he not only 
set himself to Encourage and Countenance real Godl1- 
ness, but also would himself kindly visit the Meetings 
that the Religious Neighbours privately kept for the 
Exercises of 1t; and where the least Occasion for Con- 
tention was offered, he would, with a prudent and speedy 
Endeavour, Extinguish it. But the Poor he so consider- 
ered, that besides the Daily Reliefs which with his own 
Hands he dispenced unto them, he would put consider- 
able Sums of Money into the Hands of his Friends, 
to be by them employed as they saw Opportunity to do 
good unto all, especially the Houshold of Faith. In this 
thing he was like that Noble and Worthy English Gen- 
eral, of whom ’tis noted, He never thought he had any 
thing but what he gave away; and yet after all, with much 
humility he would profess, as one of the most Liberal 
Men that ever was in the World often would, J have 
often turned over my Books of Accounts, but I could never 
find the Great God charged a Debtor there. 

$5. But Suffering as well as Doing belongs to the 
Compleat Character of a Christian; and there were 
several Trials wherein our Lord called this Eminently 


Patient Servant of his to Suffer the Will of God. He 


114 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Conflicted with Bodily Infirmities, but especially with 
a Wasting and a Bloody Cough, which held him for 
Thirty Years together. He had been by Persecutions 
driven to cross an Ocean, to which he had in his Nature 
an Antipathy; and then a Wilderness full of such Crosses 
as attend the beginning of a Plantation, exercised him. 
Nevertheless there was one Affliction which continually 
dropt upon him above all the rest, and that was this, 
He Married a Daughter which the Second Wife of Mr. 
Eaton had by a former Husband; one that from a Child 
had been Observable for Desirable Qualities. But 
some time after-she was Married she fell into a Dis- 
tempered Melancholly, which at last Issued in an 
Incurable Distraction, with such Illshaped Jdeas in her 
Brain, as use to be formed when the Animal Spirits 
are fired by Irregular Particles, fixed with Acid, Bilious, 
Venemous Ferments in the Blood. Very Grievous 
was this Affliction unto this her worthy Consort, who 
was by temper a very Affectionate Person: And who 
now left no part of a tender Husband undone, to Ease, 
and, if it were possible, to Cure the Lamentable Deso- 
lation thus come upon, The Desire of his Eyes; but when 
the Physician gave him to understand, that no means 
would be likely to Restore her Sense, but such as would 
be also likely to Hazard her Life, he Replied with Tears, 
I had rather bear my Cross unto the End that the Lord 
shall give! But upon this Occasion he said unto her 
Sister, who, with all the rest related unto her, were as 
dear unto him as his own; I have often thought, what 
should be the meaning of the Lord, 1n chastising of me 
with so sharp a Rod, and with so long a Stroke! Whereto, 
when she Reply’d, Sir, nothing singular has, in this 


Case, befallen you; God hath afflicted others in the like 


way; and we must be content with our Portion: He 


; 





EDWARD HOPKINS 115 


Answered, Sister, This is among the Lord’s Rarities. 
For my part I cannot tell what Sore to lay my Hand upon: 
However, 1n General, my Sovereign Lord is Just, and I 
will gustifie him for ever: But in Particular, I have 
thought the matter might lye here: I promised my self 
too much Content in this Relation and Enjoyment; and 
the Lord will make me to know that this World shall not 
afford it me. So he wisely, meekly, fruitfully bore this 
heavy Affiction unto his Dying Day; having been 
taught by the Affliction to Die Daily, as long as he 
Lived. 

§6. About Governour Eaton, his Father-in-Law, 
he saw cause to say unto a Sister-in-Law, whom he 
much valued; I have often wondred at my Father and 
your Father; I have heard him say, That he never had a 
Repenting, or a Repining Thought, about his coming to 
New-England: Surely, in this Matter he hath a Grace 
far out-shining Mine. But he is our Father! I cannot 
say, as he can, I have had hard work with my own Heart 
about it. But upon the Death of his Elder Brother, 
who was Warden of the Fleet,! it was necessary for him 
to Return into England, that he might look after the 
Estate which then fell unto him; and accordingly, after 
a Tempestuous and a Terrible Voyage, wherein they 
were eminently endangered by Fire, accidentally 
enkindled on the Ship, as well as by Water, which tore 
it so to Pieces, that it was Towed in by another Ship, 
he at length, 


Per Varios Casus; per tot Discrimina Rerum,? 


arrived there. There a great Notice was quickly 
taken of him: He was made Warden of the Fleet, Com- 


1 Warden of Fleet Prison. 
2 “Through varied misfortunes, through so many dangers.” 


116 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


missioner of the Admiralty, and the Navy-Office, a 
Parliament-Man; and he was placed in some other 
considerable Stations: In all which he more than an- 
swered the Expectations of those who took him to be a 
Person Eminently Qualified for Publick Service. By 
these Employments, his design of Returning to New- 
England, with which he left it, was diverted so far, 
that he sent for his Family; and about the time that 
he looked for them, he being advantaged by his great 
Places to employ certain Frigots for their safety on the 
Coast, by that means had them safely brought unto 
him. When they were with him in London, one of 
them told him how much his Friends in New-England 
Wish’d and Pray’d for his Return: And how that 
Passage had been used in our Publick Supplications 
for that Mercy, Lord, If we may win him in Heaven, we 
shall yet have him on Earth: But he Reply’d, J have 
had many Thoughts about my Return, and my A ffections 
have been bent very strongly that way; and tho’ I have now, 
blessed be God, received my Family here, yet that shall be 
no hindrance to my Return. I will tell you, though I 
am little worth, yet I have that Love which will dispose 
me to serve the Lord, and that People of his. But as to 
that matter, I incline to think they will not win it in 
Heaven; and I know not whether the Terrors of my dreadful 
Voyage hither might not be ordered by the Divine Provi- 
dence, to Stake me in this Land, being in my Spirit 
sufficiently loth to run the hazard of such another. I must 
also say to you, I mourn exceedingly, and | fear, I fear, 
the Sins of New-England will e’re long be read in its 
Punishments. The Lord has planted that Land with a 
Noble Vine; and Blessed hast thou been, O Land, in 
thy Rulers! But, alas! for the generality they have not 
considered how they were to Honour the Rules of God, 


EDWARD HOPKINS 117 


in Honouring of those whom God made Rulers over them; 
and I fear they will come to smart by having them set over 
them, that 1t will be an hard Work to Honour, and that 
will hardly be capable to manage their Affairs. 

§ 7. Accordingly he continued in England the rest 
of his Days, in several places of Great Honour and 
Burden faithfully serving the Nation; but in the midst 
of his Publick Employments most exactly maintaining 
the Zeal and Watch of his own private Walk with God. 
His Mind kept continually Mellowing and Ripening 
for Heaven; and one Expression of his Heavenly Mind, 
among many others, a little before his End, was, How 
often have I pleased my self with thoughts of a joyful 
Meeting with my Father Eaton! I remember with what 
pleasure he would come down the Street, that he might 
meet me when I came from Hartford unto New-Haven: 
But with how much greater Pleasure shall we shortly meet 
one another in Heaven! But as an Heavenly Mind is 
oftentimes a Presaging Mind, so he would sometimes 
utter this Presage unto some that were Near and Dear 
unto him; God will shortly take the Protector! away, and 
soon after that you will see great Changes overturning the 
present Constitution, and sore Troubles come upon those 
that now promise better things unto themselves. However, 
he did not Live to see the Fulfilment of this Prediction. 

$8. For the time now drew near that this Israelite 
was to Die! He had been in his Life troubled with many 
Fears of Death; and after he fell Sick, even when he 
drew very near his Death, he said with Tears, Oh/ 
Pray for me, for I am in extream Darkness! But at 
length, on a Lord’s Day, about the very time when Mr. 
Caryl was publickly praying for him, his Darkness all 
vanished, and he broke forth into these Expressions, 

1 Cromwell. 


118 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Oh! Lord, thou hast kept the best Wine until the last! 
Oh! Friends, could you believe this? I shall be blessed 
for ever, I shall quickly be in Eternal Glory. Now let the 
whole World count me Vile, and call me an Hypocrite, 
or what they will, I matter it not; I shall be blessed; there 
is reserved for me a Crown of Glory. Oh! Blessed be God 
for Jesus Christ! I have heretofore thought 1t an hard 
thing to die, but now I find that 1t 1s not so. If I might 
have my choice, I would now chuse to die; Oh! my Lord, 
I pray thee send me not back again into this Evil World, 
I have enough of 1t; no, Lord, now take me to Glory, and 
the Kingdom that is prepared for me! Yea, the standers 
by thought it not possible for them to utter exactly 
after him, the Heavenly Words which now proceeded 
from him; and when one of them said, Sir, The Lord 
hath enlarged your Faith; he replied, Friend, this 1s Sense; 
the Lord hath even satisfied my Sense; I am sensibly satis- 
fied of Everlasting Glory! Two or Three Days he now 
spent in Prayers and Praises, and in Inexpressible 
Joys: In which time, when some Eminent Persons of 
a very Publick Station and Imployment came to 
Visit him, unto them, he said, Sirs, Take heed of your 
Hearts while you are in your Work for God, that there be 
no root of bitterness within you. It may be pretended 
your Desires are to serve God, but if there are in you secret 
Aims at advancing of your selves, and your own Estates 
and Interests, the Lord will not accept your Services as 
pure before him. 

But at length in the Month of March, 1657. at 
London he expired; when being opened, it was found 
that his Heart had been unaccountably, as it were, 
Boiled and Wasted in Water, until it was become a 
little brittle Skin, which being touch’d, presently dropp’d 
in pieces. He had often wished, upon some great 


SUCCESSORS 119 


Accounts, that he might live till the beginning of this 
Year; and now when he lay a dying, he said, Lord! 
Thou hast fulfilled my Desires according to thy Word, 
that thou wilt fulfl the Desires of them that fear thee. 
Now from the Tombstone of another Eminent 
Person, we will fetch what shall here be a proper 


EPERARES 


Part of EDWARD HOPKINS, Esq;! 


But Heaven, not brooking that the Earth should share 
In the least Atom of a Piece so rare, 

Intends to Sue out, by a New Revise, 

His Habeas Corpus at the Grand Assize. 


CHAP. VIII. 
SUCCESSORS. 


§ 1. Lternately, for the most part every 
other Year, Mr. Hains, whom we have 
already mentioned elsewhere, took a turn 

with Mr. Hopkins in the Chief place of Government. 

And besides these (Reader, the Oracle that once Pre- 

dicted Government unto a ©, would now and here 

Predict it unto a W.’) there were Mr. Willis, Mr. 

Wells, and Mr. Webster, all of whom also had Oppor- 


1 Probably this line and the one preceding should be transposed 
to read “ proper Part of Edward Hopkins, Esq., Epitaph.” 

2 Ammianus Marcellinus (xxix, ch. 1, §§ 28-32) tells of a reputed 
oracle which prophesied by means of a ring hung on a thread, over a 
plate on the rim of which were marked the letters of the alphabet. 
Asked who would be the next emperor, the ring touched the letters 
@EO, and this was believed to indicate that Theodorus would reign. 
The same story is in Sozomen’s Ecclestatical History, vi, ch. 35. 


120 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


tunity to express their Liberal and Generous Disposi- 
tions, and the Governing Virtues of Wisdom, Justice 
and Courage, by the Election of the Freemen in the 
Colony before its being United with Newhaven. Had 
the Surviving Relations of these Worthy Men sent in 
unto me a Tenth Part of the Considerable and Imitable 
Things which occurr’d in their Lives, they might have 
made more of a Figure in this our History; whereas | 
must now Sum up all, with assuring my Reader, that 
it is the want of Knowledge in Me, and not of Desert in 
Them, that has confined us unto this Brevity. 

§2. After the Union of Connecticut with Newhaven, 
there were in Chief Government Mr. Leet, whom we 
have already paid our Dues unto; and Mr. Treat, who 
is yet living, a Pious and a Valiant Man, and (if even! 
Annosa Quercus”? be an Honourable thing!) worthy to 
be Honoured for 4n Hoary Head found in the Way of 
Righteousness: Besides, Mr. Winthrop, of whom anon, 
Reader, expect a Compleater History. 


CHAR ALXS 


Humilitas Honorata.2 The LIFE of THEOPHILUS 
EATON, £sq; Governour of NEW-HAVEN COLONY. 


Justitie Cultor, Rigidt Servator Honesti, 
In Commune Bonum.* 


§1. BT has been enquired, why the Evangelist 
] Luke in the First Sacred History which he 
Addressed unto his Fellow-Citizen, gave him 

the Title of The most Excellent Theophilus, but in the 
next he used no higher a Stile than plain Theophilus? 
1 Ever. 2 “an aged oak.” 3 “ Honored humility.” 


4*°A cultivator of justice, a servant of inflexible honesty, for the 
common good.” 


THEOPHILUS EATON 121 


And though several other Answers might be given to 
that Enquiry, ’tis enough to say, That neither the Civil- 
ity of Luke, nor Nobility of Theophilus, were by Age 
abated; but Luke herein considered the Disposition of 
Theophilus, as well as his own, with whom a reduced Age 
had render’d all Titles of Honour more Disagreeable Su- 
perfluities. Indeed nothing would have been more Un- 
acceptable to the Governour of our New-Haven Colony 
all the time of his being so, than to have been Advanced 
and Applauded above the rest of Mankind; yet it must 
be now Published unto the Knowledge of Mankind, 
that New-England could not of his Quality show a 
More Excellent Person, and this was Theophilus Eaton, 
Esq; the first Governour of that Colony. Humility 
is a Virtue whereof Amyraldus! observes, There is not 
so much as a Shadow of Commendation in all the Pagan 
Writers. But the Reader is now concerned with Writ- 
ings which will Commend a Person for Humility; and 
therefore our EATON, in whom the shine of every 
Virtue was particularly set off with a more than or- 
dinary Degree of Humility, must now be propos’d as 
Commendable. 

§2. “Tis Reported, that the Earth taken from the 
Banks of Nilus, will very strangely Sympathize with 
the place from whence it was taken, and grow moist or 
dry according to the Increase and the Decrease of the 
River. And in spite of that Popish Lie which pretends 
to observe the contrary, this thing has been signally 
Moraliz'd in the daily Observation, that the Sons of 
Ministers, though betaking themselves to other Im- 
ployments, do ordinarily carry about with them an 
Holy and Happy Savour of their Ministerial Education. 


1 Amyraldus, Moses Amyraut, 1596-1664, French Protestant 
divine. 


122 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


*Twas remarkably Exemplified in our Theophilus Eaton, 
who was Born at Stony-Stratford, in Oxfordshire,} 
the Eldest Son to the Faithful and Famous Minister 
of the place. But the Words of Old used by Philostratus 
concerning the Son of the Great Man, As for his Son I 
have nothing else to say, but that he was his Son; they 
could not be used concerning our Theophilus, who 
having received a good Education from his Pious 
Parents, did live many Years to Answer that Education 
in his own Piety and Usefulness. 

§3. His Father being removed unto Coventry, 
he there at School fell into the Intimate Acquaintance 
of that Worthy John Davenport? with whom the 
Providence of God many Years after united him in 
the great Undertaking of settling a Colony of Christian 
and Reformed Churches on the American Strand. 
Here his Ingenuity and Proficiency render’d him 
notable; and so vast was his Memory, that although 
he wrote not at the Church, yet when he came home, 
he would, at his Father’s Call, repeat unto those that 
met in his Father’s House, the Sermons which had been 
publickly Preached by others, as well as his own Father, 
with such exactness, as astonished all the Neighbour- 
hood. But in their after Improvements, the Hands 
of Divine Providence were laid across upon the Heads 
of Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport; for Davenport, 
whose Father was the Mayor of Coventry, became a 
Mintster; and Eaton, whose Father was Minister of 
Coventry, contrary to his Intentions, became a Merchant. 
His Parents were very loth to have complied with his 


1 Buckinghamshire. 

2 John Davenport, one of the greatest of the early New England 
divines, was for years a friend of Increase Mather. Cotton Mather 
wrote Davenport’s life in the Magnalia, Book III, Part 1, ch. iv. 


THEOPHILUS EATON 123 


Inclinations; but their Compliance therewithal did at 
last appear to have been directed by a special Favour 
of Heaven unto the Family, when after the Death of his 
Father, he, by this means, became the Joseph, by whom 
his Motherwas maintained until she died, and his Orphan 
Brethren and Sisters had no small part of their Sub- 
sistence. 

§4. During the time of his hard Apprenticeship 
he behaved himself wisely; and his Wisdom, with God’s 
Favour, particularly appeared in his chaste Escape 
from the Snares of a Young Woman in the House where 
he lived, who would fain have taken him in the Pits 
by the Wise Man cautioned against, and who was 
herself so taken only with his most Comely Person, 
that she dy’d for the Love of him, when she saw him 
gone too far to be obtained: Whereas, by the like 
Snares, the Apprentice that next succeeded him was 
undone for ever. But being a Person herewithal most 
signally Diligent in his Business, it was not long before 
the Maxim of the Wise Man was most literally accom- 
plished in his coming to Stand before Princes;' for being 
made a Freeman of London, he applied himself unto 
the East-Country Trade, and was publickly chosen the 
Deputy-Governour of the Company, wherein he so 
acquitted himself as to become considerable. And 
afterwards going himself into the East-Couwntry, he not 
only became so well Acquainted with the Affairs of the 
Baltick-Sea, but also became so well Improved in the 
Accomplishments of a Man of Business, that the King 
of England imploy’d him as an Agent unto the King 
of Denmark. The Concerns of his Agency he so dis- 
creetly managed, that as he much obliged and engaged 


1 For the references to “the Wise Man” in this paragraph, ¢f. 
Proverbs xxil, 14, 29. 


124 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


the East-Land Company, (who in Token thereof pre- 
sented his Wife with a Bason and Ewer double gilt, 
and curiously wrought with Gold, and weighing above 
Sixty Pound,) so he found much Acceptance with the 
King of Denmark, and was afterwards used by that 
Prince to do him no little Services. Nevertheless he 
kept his Integrity amongst the Temptations of that 
Court, whereat he was now a Resident; and not seldom 
had he most Eminent Cause to acknowledge the Benzg- 
nity and Interposal of Heaven for his Preservations; 
once particularly, when the King of Denmark was 
beginning the King of England’s Health, while Mr. 
Eaton, who disliked such Health-Drinking, was in his 
Presence; the King fell down in a sort of a Fit, with the 
Cup in his Hand, whereat all the Nobles and Courtiers 
wholly applied themselves to convey the King into 
his Chamber, and there was no notice taken who was 
to Pledge his Health; whereby Mr. Eaton was the 
more easily deliver’d from any share in the Debauch. 

§ 5. Having arrived unto a fair Estate, (which he 
was first willing to do,! he Married a most Virtuous 
Gentlewoman, to whom he had first Espoused himself 
after he had spent Three Years in an Absence from her 
in the East-Country. But this dearest and greatest of 
his Temporal Enjoyments proved but a Temporal 
one; for living no longer with him than to render him 
the Father of Two Children, she almost killed him 
with her own Death; and yet at her Death she expressed 
herself wondrous willing to be Dissolved, and to be with 
Christ, from whom (she said) I would not be detained 
one Hour for all the Enjoyments upon Earth. He after- 
wards Married a Prudent and Pious Widow, the Daugh- 
ter of the Bishop of Chester; unto the Three former Chil- 


x) 


THEOPHILUS EATON 125 


dren of whic’ Widow, he became a most Exemplary 
Loving and Faithful Father, as well as a most Worthy 
Husband unto herself, by whom he afterwards had 
Five Children, Two Sons and Three Daughters. But 
the Second of his Children by his latter Wife dying 
some while before, it was not long before his Two 
Children by his former Wife were smitten with the 
Plague, whereof the Elder died, and his House there- 
upon shut up with a, Lord have Mercy! However the 
Lord had this Mercy on the Family, to let the Distemper 
spread no further; and so Mr. Eaton spent many Years 
a Merchant of great Credit and Fashion in the City of 
London. 

§6. At length Conformity to Ceremonies Humanely 
Invented and Imposed in the Worship of God, was 
urged in the Church of England with so much Rigour, 
that Mr. Davenport was thereby driven to seek a 
Refuge from the Storm in the Cold and Rude Corners of 
America. Mr. Eaton had already assisted the New 
Massachuset-Colony, as being one of the Patentees for 
it; but had no purpose of removing thither himself, 
until Mr. Davenport, under whose Excellent Ministry 
he lived, was compelled unto a share in this Removal. 
However, being fully satisfied in his own Conscience, 
that Unlawful things were now violently demanded of 
him, he was willing to accompany his Persecuted Pastor 
in the Retreat from Violence now Endeavoured, and 
many Eminent Londoners chearfully engaged with him 
in this Undertaking. Unto New-England this Company 
of good Men came in the Year 1637. where chusing to 
be a distinct Colony by themselves, more Accommodated 
unto the Designs of Merchandize than of Husbandry, 
they sought and bought a large Territory in the 

1 Which. 


126 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Southern Parts of the Country for their Habitations. 


In the Prosecution hereof, the Chief Care was devolved — 


upon Mr. Eaton, who with an Unexempled Patience 
took many tedious and hazardous Journies through a 
Desolate Wilderness full of Barbarous Indians, until 
upon Mature Deliberation he pitched upon a place 
now called New-Haven, where they soon formed a very 
regular Town; and a number of other Towns along the 
Sea side were quickly added thereunto. But by the 
Difficulties attending these Journies, Mr. Eaton brought 
himself into an extream Sickness; from which he re- 
covered not without a Fistula in his Breast, whereby 
he underwent much Affliction. When the Chirurgeon 
came to Inspect the Sore, he told him, Sir, I know not 
how to go about what 1s necessary for your Cure; but Mr. 
Eaton answered him, God calls you to do, and me to 
suffer! And God accordingly strengthened him to bear 


miserable Cuttings and Launcings of his Flesh with a — 


most Invincible Patience. The Chirurgeon indeed made 
so many Wounds, that he was not able to Cure what he 
had made; another, and a better, Hand was necessarily 
imployed for it; but in the mean while great were the 


Trials with which the God of Heaven exercised the — 


Faith of this his Holy Servant. 

§7. Mr. Eaton and Mr. Davenport were the Moses 
and daron of the Christian Colony now Erected in the 
South-West Parts of New-England; and Mr. Eaton 
being yearly and ever chosen their Governour, it was 
the Admiration of all Spectators to behold the Dis- 
cretion, the Gravity, the Equity with which he still 
managed all their Publick Affairs. He carried in his 
very Countenance a Majesty which cannot be described; 
and in his Dispensations of Justice he was a Mirrour 
for the most Imitable Impartiality, but Ungainsayable 


1 ee ieee aie i ee OR Se 6 ee ob. 


—— se  —— 


THEOPHILUS EATON 127 


Authority of his Proceedings, being awfully sensible 
of the Obligations which the Oath of a Judge lays upon 
him. Ils sont plus tenus de raison de garder Leur Ser- 
ment, doubter mort, ou aucutie forfeiture:! And hence he, 
who would most patiently bear hard things offered unto 
his Person in private Cases, yet would never pass by 
any Publick Affronts, or Neglects offered when he 
appeared under the Character of a Magistrate. But 
he still was the Guide of the Blind, the Staff of the 
Lame, the Helper of the Widow and the Orphan, and 
all the Distressed; none that had a Good Cause was 
afraid of coming before him: On the one side, Jn his 
Days did the Righteous flourish; on the other side, He 
was the Terror of Evil Doers. As in his Government of 
the Commonwealth, so in the Government of his Family, 
he was Prudent, Serious, Happy to a Wonder; and 
albeit he sometimes had a large Family, consisting of 
no less than Thirty Persons, yet he managed them with 
such an Even Temper, that Observers have affirmed, 
They never saw an House ordered with more Wisdom! 
He kept an Honourable and Hospitable Table; but 
one thing that still made the Entertainment thereof 
the better, was the continual Presence of his Aged 
Mother, by feeding of whom with an Exemplary Piety 
till she died, he ensured his own Prosperity as long as 
he lived. His Children and Servants he would mightily 
Encourage unto the Study of the Scriptures, and Coun- 
tenance their Addresses unto himself with any of their 
Enquiries; but when he discerned any of them sinfully 
negligent about the Concerns either of their General 
or Particular Callings, he would admonish them with 
such a Penetrating Efficacy, that they could scarce 


1 “They are more bound to keep their oath [than] to fear death or 
any forfeiture”; aucutie is probably for aucune. 


128 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


forbear falling down at his Feet with Tears. A Word 
of his was enough to steer them! 

§8. So Exemplary was he for a Christian, that 
one who had been a Servant unto him, could many 
Years after say, Whatever Difficulty in my daily Walk 
I now meet withal, still something that I either saw or 
heard in my Blessed Master Eaton’s Conversation, helps 
me through it all; I have Reason to bless God that ever I 
knew him! It was his Custom when he first rose in a 
Morning, to repair unto his Study; a Study well Per- 
fumed with the Meditations and Supplications of an 
Holy Soul. After this, calling his Family together, 
he would then read a Portion of the Scripture among 
them, and after some Devout and Useful Reflections 
upon it, he would make a Prayer not long, but Extraor- 
dinary Pertinent and Reverent; and in the Evening 
some of the same Exercises were again attended. On 
the Saturday Morning he would still take notice of 
the Approaching Sabbath in his Prayer, and ask the 
Grace to be Remembring of it, and Preparing for it; 
and when the Evening arrived, he, besides this, not 
only Repeated a Sermon, but also Instructed his People, 
with putting of Questions referring to the Points of 
Religion, which would oblige them to Study for an 
Answer; and if their Answer were at any time insufh- 
cient, he would wisely and gently Enlighten their 
Understandings; all which he concluded with Singing 
of a Psalm. When the Lord’s Day came, he called his 
Family together at the time for the Ringing of the 
First Bell, and repeated a Sermon, whereunto he added 
a Fervent Prayer, especially tending unto the Sancti- 
fication of the Day. At Noon he sang a Psalm, and at 
Night he retired an Hour into his Closet; advising 
those in his House to improve the same time for the 


THEOPHILUS EATON 129 


good of their own Souls. He then called his Family 
together again, and in an obliging manner conferred 
with them about the things with which they had been 
Entertained in the House of God, shutting up all 
with a Prayer for the Blessing of God upon them all. 
For Solemn Days of Humiliation, or of Thanksgiving, 
he took the same Course, and Endeavoured still to 
make those that belonged unto him, understand the 
meaning of the Services before them. He seldom used 
any Recreations, but being a great Reader, all the time 
he could spare from Company and Business, he com- 
monly spent in his Beloved Study; so that he merited 
the Name which was once given to a Learned Ruler 
of the English Nation, the Name of Beauclerb:} In 
Conversing with his Friends, he was Affable, Cour- 
teous, and generally Pleasant, but Grave perpetually; 
and so Cautelous and Circumspect in his Discourses, 
and so Modest in his Expressions, that it became a 
Proverb for Incontestable Truth, Governour Eaton 
said tt. 

But after all, his Humility appeared in his having 
always but Low Expectations, looking for little Regard 
and Reward from any Men, after he had merited as 
highly as was possible by his Universal Serviceableness. 

§9. His Eldest Son he maintained at the Colledge 
until he proceeded Master of Arts; and he was indeed 
the Son of his Vows, and a Son of great Hopes. But a 
severe Catarrh diverted this Young Gentleman from 
the Work of the Ministry whereto his Father had once 
devoted him; and a Malignant Fever then raging in 
those Parts of the Country, carried off him with his 
Wife within Two or Three Days of one another. This 
was counted the sorest of all the Trials that ever befel 

1 Henry I. 


130 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


his Father in the Days of the Years of his Pilgrimage; 
but he bore it with a Patience and Composure of Spirit 
which was truly admirable. His dying Son look’d 
earnestly on him, and said, Sir, What shall we do! 
Whereto, with a well-ordered Countenance, he replied, 
Look up to God! And when he passed by his Daughter 
drowned in Tears on this Occasion, to her he said, 
Remember the Sixth Commandment, Hurt not your self 
with Immoderate Grief; Remember Job, who said, The 
Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away, 
Blessed be the Name of the Lord! You may mark what 
a Note the Spirit of God put upon it; in all this Job 
sinned not, nor charged God foolishly: God accounts it 
a charging of him foolishly, when we don’t submit unto 
his Will patiently. Accordingly he now governed 
himself as one that had attained unto the Rule of 
Weeping as 1f we wept not; for it being the Lord’s Day, 
he repaired unto the Church in the Afternoon, as he 
had been there in the Forenoon, though he was never 
like to see his Dearest Son alive any more in this World. 
And though before the First Prayer began, a Messenger 
came to prevent Mr. Davenport's praying for the Sick 
Person, who was now Dead, yet his Affectionate Father 
alter’d not his Course, but Wrote after the Preacher as 
formerly;! and when he came Home he held on his 
former Methods of Divine Worship in his Family, not 
for the Excuse of Aaron, omitting any thing in the Serv- 
ice of God. In like sort, when the People had been 
at the Solemn Interment of this his Worthy Son, he 
did with a very Unpassionate Aspect and Carriage 
then say, Friends, I thank you all for your Love and 

1“ Writing after the preacher’’—1. ¢. taking notes on the sermon— 


was a common practice, and many early notebooks kept in this way, 
are preserved. 


THEOPHILUS EATON 131 


Help, and for this Testimony of Respect unto me and mine: 
The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken, blessed 
be the Name of the Lord! Nevertheless, retiring here- 
upon into the Chamber where his Daughter then lay 
Sick, some Tears were observed falling from him while 
he uttered these Words, There is a difference between a 
sullen Silence or a stupid Senslesness under the Hand 
of God, and a Child-like Submission thereunto. 

§10. Thus continually he, for about a Score of 
Years, was the Glory and Pillar of New-Haven Colony. 
He would often say, Some count it a great matter to 
Die well, but I am sure ’tis a great matter to Live well. 
All our Care should be while we have our Life to use it 
well, and so when Death puts an end unto that, it will 
put an end unto all our Cares. But having Excellently 
managed his Care to Live well, God would have him to 
Die well, without any room or time then given to take 
any Care at all; for he enjoyed a Death sudden to every 
one but himself! Having Worshipped God with his 
Family after his usual manner, and upon some Occasion 
with much Solemnity charged all the Family to Carry it 
well unto their Mistress who was now confined by 
Sickness, he Supp’d, and then took a turn or two abroad 
for his Meditations. After that he came in to bid his 
Wife Good-night, before he left her with her W atchers, 
which when he did, she said, Methinks you look sad! 
Whereto he reply’d, The Differences risen in the Church 
of Hartford make me so; she then added, Let us e’en 
go back to our Native Country again; to which he an- 
swered, You may, [and so she did] but I shall Die here. 
This was the last Word that ever she heard him speak; 
for now retiring unto his Lodging in another Chamber, 
he was overheard about midnight fetching a Groan; 
and unto one, sent in presently to enquire how he did, 


132 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


he answered the Enquiry with only saying, Very JIl! 
And without saying any more, he fell asleep in Jesus: 
In the Year 1657. loosing Anchor from New-Haven 
for the better. 


Le SENS odes up ein Cees 
Ostendunt.! 


Now let his Gravestone wear at least the following 
Dial iievel ae. 


NEW-ENGLAND’s Glory, full of Warmth and Light, 
Stole away (and said nothing) in the Night. 


CHAP. X. 


SUCCESSORS. 





7 4 HEN the Day arrived in the Anniversary 
@/W/ Course for the Freemen of the Colony to 
¥ Elect another Governour in the place of 

the Deceased Eaton, Mr. Davenport Preached on that 
Passage of the Divine Oracle, in Josh. 1. 1, 2. Now 
after the Death of Moses, the Servant of the Lord, 1t came 
to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the Son of Nun, 
Moses Minister, saying, Now arise thou and all this 
People. Vhe Colony was abundantly sensible that their 
EATON had been a Man of a Mosaic Spirit; and that 
while they chose him, as they did every Year of his 
Life among them to be their Governour, they could 
1 “ Places where the Fates promise peace.” From the point of view 


of sense, the period after “better” just before the Latin quotation, 
should be removed. 


SUCCESSORS 133 


not chuse a better. But they now considered that Mr. 
Francis Newman, who had been for many Years the 
Secretary of the Colony, was there a Minister to their 
Moses, as he had been otherwise his intimate Friend, 
Neighbour, Companion and Counsellor. For this 
Cause the Unanimous Choice of the Freemen fell upon 
this Gentleman to succeed in the Government. And 
I shall have given a sufficient History of his Govern- 
ment; which through Death was not suffered to continue 
above Three or Four Years, by only saying, That he 
walk’d exactly in the Steps of his Predecessor. 

§2. Upon the setting of Mr. Francis Newman, 
there arose Mr. William Leet, of whom let not the 
Reader be displeased at this brief Account. This 
Gentleman was by his Education a Lawyer, and by his 
Imployment a Register! in the Bishop's Court. In 
that Station, at Cambridge, he observed that there were 
Summoned before the Court certain Persons to answer 
for the Crime of going to hear Sermons abroad, when 
there were none to be heard in their own Parish 
Churches at home; and that when any were brought 
before them for Fornication or Adultery, the Court 
only made themselves merry with their Peccadillo’s; and 
that these latter Transgressors were as favourably 
dealt withal, as ever the Wolf was when he came with 
an Auricular Confession of his Murders to his Brother 
Fox for Absolution; but the former found as hard 
measure as ever the poor 4ss, that had only taken a 
Straw by mistake out of a Pilgrim’s Pad, and yet upon 
Confession, was by Chancellour Fox pronounced 
Unpardonable. This Observation extreamly scandal- 
ized Mr. Leet, who always thought, that Hearing a 
good Sermon had been a lesser Fault than Lying with 

1 Registrar. 


134 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


one’s Neighbour’s Wife: And had the same Resentments 
that Austin sometimes had of the Iniquity which made 
the Transgression of a Ceremony more severely repre- 
hended than a Transgression of the Law of God; but it 
made an Everlasting Impression upon his Heart, when 
the Judge of the Court furiously demanded of one then 
to be censured, How he durst be so bold as to break the 
Laws of the Church, 1n going from his own Parish to hear 
Sermons abroad? And the Honest Man answered, Sir, 
How should I get Faith else? For the Apostle saith, 
Faith comes by Hearing the Word Preached; which 
Faith is necessary to Salvation; and Hearing the Word 1s 
the Means appointed by God for the obtaining and en- 
creasing of it: And these Means I must use, whatever 
I suffer for it in this World. These Words of that Honest 
Man were Blessed by God with such an Effect upon 
the Mind of Mr. Leet, that he presently left his Office 
in the Bishop’s Court, and forsaking that Untoward 
Generation of Men, he associated himself with such as 
would go Hear the Word, that they might get Faith; and 
in Hearing he did happily get the Like precious Faith. 
On this, and for this, he was exposed unto the Persecu- 
tion, which caused him to retire into New-England 
with many Worthy Miuinisters and other Christians 
in the Year 1639. In that Country he settled himself 
under the Ministry of the Excellent Mr. Whitfield at 
Gilford, where being also chosen a Magistrate, and then 
Governour of the Colony; and being so at the Juncture of 
time, when the Royal Charter did join Connecticut and 
New-Haven, he became next unto Governour Winthrop, 
the Deputy-Governour of the whole; and after the Death 
of Mr. Winthrop, even until his own Death, the Annual 
Election for about a Decad of Years together still made 
him Governour. But in his whole Government he gave 


JOHN WINTHROP 135 


continual Demonstrations of an Excellent Spirit, 
especially in that part of it where the Reconciliation 
and the Coalition of the Spirits of the People under it 
was to be accomplished. Mr. Robert Treat is the 
Follower of his Example, as well as the Successor in 
his Government. 


GEA Paaexl. 


Hermes Christianus.! The LIFE of JOHN WIN- 
THROP, Esq; Governour of CONNECTICUT and 
NEW-HAVEN United. 





Et Nos aliquod Nomengq; Decusq; 
Gessimus. s 





of the best Roman Emperor, that he was 
Bonus a Bono, Pius a Pio,? the Son of a Father 
like himself, our History may affirm concerning a 
very good New-English Governour also, that he was the 
Father of a Son like himself. The Proverb of the Jews 
which doth observe, That Vinegar is the Son of Wine; 
and the Proverb of the Greeks, which doth observe, 
That the Sons of Heroes are Trespassers, has been more 
than once contradicted in the happy Experience of the 
New-Englanders: But none of the least remarkable 
Contradictions given to it has been in the Honourable 
Family of our WINTHROPS. 
§2. The Eldest Son of JOHN WINTHROP, Esq; 


1 “The Christian Mercury.” 
2 “And we bore some fame and glory.” 
3“ A good son of a good father, and a pious son of a pious father.” 


Sale [ the Historian could give that Character of 


136 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 
the Governour of one Colony, was JOHN WINTHROP, 


Esq; the Governour of another, in, therefore happy, 
New-England, born Feb. 12. 1605. at Groton in England. 
His Glad Father bestowed on him a liberal Education 
at the University, first of Cambridge in England, and 
then of Dublin in Ireland; and because Travel has 
been esteemed no little Accomplisher of a Young 
Gentleman, he then Accomplished himself by Travelling 
into France, Holland, Flanders, Italy, Germany, and as 
far as Turky it self; in which places he so improved his 
Opportunity of Conversing with all sorts of Learned 
Men, that he returned home equally a Subject of much 
Experience, and of great Expectation. 

§3. The Son of Scipio Africanus proving a degener- 
ate Person, the People forced him to pluck off a Signet- 
Ring, which he wore with his Father's Face engraven on 
it. But the Son of our Celebrated Governour Winthrop, 
was on the other side so like unto his Excellent Father 
for early Wisdom and Virtue, that arriving at New- 
England with his Father’s Family, Nov. 4. 1631. he 
was, though not above [Twenty Three Years of Age,! 
by the Unanimous Choice of the People, chosen a 
Magistrate of the Colony, whereof his Father was the 
Governour. For this Colony he afterwards did many 
Services, yea, and he did them Abroad as well as at 
Home; very particularly in the Year 1634. when return- 
ing for England, he was by bad Weather forced into 
Ireland, where being invited unto the House of Sir 
John Clotworthy, he met with many Considerable 
Persons, by conferring with whom, the Affairs of New- 
England were not a little promoted; but it was another 
Colony for which the Providence of Heaven intended 


1 If he was born in 1605, as Mather says, this should be twenty-six, 
not twenty-three, 


JOHN WINTHROP 137 


him to be such another Father, as his own Honourable 
Father had been to this. 

§4. Inthe Year 1635. Mr. Winthrop returned unto 
New-England, with Powers from the Lord Say and the 
Lord Brook, to settle a Plantation upon the Long River 
of Connecticut, and a Commission to be himself the 
Governour of that Plantation. But inasmuch as many 
good People of the Massachuset-Colony had just before 
this taken Possession of Land for a New-Colony there- 
abouts, this Courteous and Peaceable Gentleman gave 
them no Molestation; but having wisely Accommodated 
the Matter with them, he sent a convenient number of 
Men, with all Necessaries, to Erect a Fortification at 
the Mouth of the River, where a Town, with a Fort, 
is now distinguished by the Name of Say-Brook; by 
which happy Action, the Planters further up the River 
had no small Kindness done unto them; and the /ndians, 
which might else have been more Troublesome, were 
kept in Awe. 

§5. The Self-denying Gentleman, who had im- 
ployed his Commission of Governour so little to the 
Disadvantage of the Infant-Colony at Connecticut, 
was himself, e’re long, by Election made Governour 
of that Colony. And upon the Restoration of King 
Charles II. he willingly undertook another Voyage to 
England, on the behalf of the People under his Govern- 
ment, whose Affairs he managed with such a Successful 
Prudence, that he obtained a Royal Charter for them, 
which Incorporated the Colony of New-Haven with 
them, and Invested both Colonies, now happily United, 
with a firm Grant of Priviledges, beyond those of the 
Plantations which had been settled before them. I 
have been informed, that while he was engaged in this 
Negotiation, being admitted unto a private Conference 


138 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


with the King, he presented His Majesty with a Ring, 
which King Charles I. had upon some Occasion given 
to his Grandfather; and the King not only accepted 
his Present, but also declared, that he accounted it 
one of his Richest Jewels; which indeed was the Opinion 
that New-England had of the Hand that carried it. 
But having thus laid his Colony under Everlasting 
Obligations of Gratitude, they did, after his return to 
New-England, express of their Gratitude, by saying to 
him as the Jsraelites did unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, 
for thou hast delivered us; chusing him for their Governour 
twice Seven Years together. 

§ 6. When the Governour of Athens was a Philoso- 
pher, namely Demetrius, the Commonwealth so flour- 
ished, that no less than Three Hundred Brazen Statues 
were afterward by the Thankful People Erected unto 
his Memory. And a Blessed Land was New-England, 
when there was over part of it a Governour, who was 
not only a Christian and a Gentleman, but also an Emi- 
nent Philosopher; for indeed the Government of the 
State is then most successfully managed, when the 
measures of it are, by a Wise Observer, taken from the 
Government of the World; and very unreasonable is 
the Jewish Proverb, 

Ne Habites in urbe ubi caput urbis est Medicus: But 
highly reasonable the Sentence of Aristotle, Ubi preses 
fuerit Philosophus, tbi Civitas erit Felix;? and this 
the rather for what is truly noted by Thucydides, 
Magistratus est Civitatis Medicus.2 Such an one was 
our WINTHROP, whose Genius and Faculty for 
Experimental Philosophy, was advanced in his Travels 
1 “T)well not in the city where the chief is a physician.” 


2 “ Where the leader is a philosopher, there the state will be happy.” 
3 “The magistrate is the physician of the state.” 


JOHN WINTHROP 139 


abroad, by his Acquaintance with many Learned 
Virtuost. One Effect of this Disposition in him, was 
his being furnished with Noble Medicines, which he 
most Charitably and Generously gave away upon all 
Occasions; insomuch that where-ever he came, still 
the Diseased flocked about him, as if the Healing Angel 
of Bethesda had appeared in the place; and so many 
were the Cures which he wrought, and the Lives that 
he saved, that if Scanderbeg! might boast of his having 
slain in his Time Two Thousand Men with his own 
Hands, this Worthy Person might have made a far 
more desirable Boast of his having in his Time Healed 
more than so many Thousands; in which Beneficence 
to Mankind, there are of his Worthy Children, who 
to this Day do follow his Direction and Example. 
But it was not unto New-England alone that the Re- 
spects of this Accomplished Philosopher were confined. 
For, whereas in pursuance of the Methods begun by 
that Immortally Famous Advancer of Learning, the 
most Illustrious Lord Chancellor Bacon, a Select 
Company of Eminent Persons, using to meet in the 
Lodgings of Dr. Wilkins of Wadham Colledge in Oxford, 
had laid the Foundation of a Celebrated Society, which 
by the Year 1663. being Incorporated with a Royal 
Charter, hath since been among the Glories of England, 
yea, and of Mankind; and their Design was to make 
Faithful Records of all the Works of Nature or of Art, 
which might come under their Observation, and Correct 
what had been False, Restore what should be True, 
Preserve what should be Rare, and Render the Knowl- 
edge of the World, as well more Perfect as more Useful; 
and by multiplied Experiments both of Light and 
Fruit, advance the Empire of Man over the whole 
1 Scanderbeg 1s George Castriota, an Albanian hero, c. 1450. 


140 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


visible Creation; it was the Honour of Mr. Winthrop 
to be a Member of this Royal Society. And accordingly 
among the Philosophical Transactions Published by 
Mr. Oldenburgh, there are some notable Communica- 
tions from this Inquisitive and Intelligent Person, whose 
Insight into many Parts of the Creation, but especially 
of the Mineral Kingdom, was beyond what had been 
attained by the most in many Parts of America.! 

§ 7. If one would therefore desire an exact Picture 
of this Worthy Man, the Description which the most 
Sober and Solid Writers of the Great Philosophick 
Work do give of those Persons, who alone are qualified 
for the Smiles of Heaven upon their Enterprizes, would 
have exactly fitted him. He was a Studious, Humble, 
Patient, Reserved and Mortified Person, and one in 
whom the Love of God was Fervent, the Love of Man 
sincere: And he had herewithal a certain Extension of 
Soul, which disposed him to a Generous Behaviour 
towards those, who by Learning, Breeding and Virtue, 
deserve Respects, though of a Perswasion and Profes- 
sion in Religion very different from his own; which 
was that of a Reformed Protestant, and a New-English 
Puritan. In sum, he was not more an Adeptist? in 
those Noble and Secret Medicines, which would reach 
the Roots of the Distempers that annoy Humane Bodies, 
and procure an Universal Rest unto the Archeus? on 
all Occasions of Disturbance, than he was in those 
Christian Qualities, which appear upon the Cure of 
the Distempers in the Minds of Men, by the Effectual 
Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 


1 Mather here refers to the Royal Society of London. 

1 eral adent: 

3 The Archzus—an old medical term for the essential vital principle 
in the body. 


JOHN WINTHROP 14! 


§8. In the Year 1643. after divers Essays made 
in some former Years, the several Colonies of New- 
England became in Fact, as well as Name, UNITED 
COLONIES. And an Instrument was formed, wherein 
having declared, Thai we all came into these parts of 
America with the same End and Aim, namely, to advance 
the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and enjoy the Liberties 
of the Gospel with Purity and Peace, it was firmly agreed 
between the several Jurisdictions, that there should 
yearly be chosen Two Commissioners out of each, who 
should meet at fit Places appointed for that purpose, 
with full Powers from the General Courts in each, to 
Concert and Conclude Matters of General Concern- 
ment for Peace or War of the several Colonies thus 
Confederated. In pursuance of this Laudable Confeder- 
acy, this most Meritorious Governour of Connecticut 
Colony accepted the Trouble of appearing as a Com- 
missioner for that Colony, with the rest met at Boston, 
in the Year 1676. when the Calamities of the Indian- 
War* were distressing the whole Country: But here 
falling Sick of a Fever, he dy’d on April 5. of that 
Year, and was Honourably Interred in the same Tomb 
with his Honourable Father. 

$9. His Father, as long ago as the Year 1643. had 
seen Cause to Write unto him an Excellent Letter, 
wherein there were these among other Passages. 

“You are the Chief of Two Families; I had by your 
‘Mother Three Sons and Three Daughters, and | had 
‘with her a Large Portion of outward Estate. These 
“now are all gone; Mother gone; Brethren and Sisters 
“gone; you only are left to see the Vanity of these 
‘Temporal things, and learn Wisdom thereby, which 
“may be of more use to you, through the Lord’s Blessing, 

1 King Philip’s War. 


142 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


‘than all that Jnheritance which might have befallen 
‘you: And for which this may stay and quiet your 
‘Heart, That God is able to give you more than this: 
‘and that it being spent in the furtherance of his Work, 
‘which hath here prospered so well, through his Power 
‘hitherto, you and yours may certainly expect a liberal 
‘Portion in the Prosperity and Blessing thereof hereafter; 
‘and the rather, because it was not forced from you 
‘by a Father's Power, but freely resigned by your 
‘self, out of a Loving and Filial Respect unto me, and 
‘your own readiness unto the Work it self. From 
‘whence, as I do often take Occasion to Bless the 
‘Lord for you, so do I also Commend you and yours to 
‘his Fatherly Blessing, for a plentiful Reward to be 
‘rendred unto you. And doubt not, my Dear Son, 
‘but let your Faith be built upon his Promise and 
‘Faithfulness, that as he hath carried you hitherto 
‘through many Perils, and provided liberally for you, 
‘so he will do for the time to come, and will never fail 
‘you, nor forsake you. My Son, the Lord knows 
“how Dear thou art to me, and that my Care has been 
‘more for thee than for my self. But I know thy Pros- 
‘perity depends not on my Care, nor on thine own, 
‘but upon the Blessing of our Heavenly Father; neither 
‘doth it on the things of this World, but on the Light 
‘of God’s Countenance, through the Merit and Media- 
‘tion of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is that only which 
‘can give us Peace of Conscience with Contentation; 
‘which can as well make our Lives Happy and Com- 
‘fortable in a mean Estate, as in a great Abundance. 
‘But if you weigh things aright, and sum up all the 
‘Turnings of Divine Providence together, you shall 
‘find great Advantage.—The Lord hath brought us 
‘to a Good Land; a Land, where we enjoy outward 





JOHN WINTHROP 143 


‘Peace and Liberty, and above all, the Blessings of the 
“Gospel, without the Burden of Impositions in Matters 
‘of Religion. Many Thousands there are who would 
‘give Great Estates to enjoy our Condition. Labour 
‘therefore, my good Son, to increase our Thankfulness 
‘to God for all his Mercies to thee, especially for that 
‘he hath revealed his Everlasting Good-will to thee in 
‘Jesus Christ, and joined thee to the visible Body of 
‘his Church, in the Fellowship of his People, and hath 
‘saved thee in all thy Travails abroad, from being 
“Infected with the Vices of these Countries where thou 
‘hast been, (a Mercy vouchsafed but unto few Young 
Gentlemen Travellers.) Let him have the Honour of 
‘it who kept thee. He it was who gave thee Favour 
‘in the Eyes of all with whom thou hadst to do, both 
‘by Sea and Land; He it was who saved thee in all 
“Perils; and He it is who hath given thee a Gift in 
‘Understanding and Art; and he it is who hath pro- 
“vided thee a Blessing in Marriage, a Comfortable 
‘Help, and many Sweet Children; and hath hitherto 
‘provided liberally for you all: And therefore I would 
‘have you to Love him again, and Serve him, and Trust 
‘him for the time to come. Love and Prize that Word 
‘of Truth, which only makes known to you the Precious 
‘and Eternal Thoughts and Councils of the Light 
‘Inaccessible. Deny your own Wisdom, that you may 
‘find his; and esteem it the greatest Honour to lye under 
‘the Simplicity of the Gospel of Christ Crucified, with- 
‘out which you can never enter into the Secrets of his 
‘Tabernacle, nor enjoy those sweet things which Eye 
‘hath not seen, nor Ear heard, nor can the Heart of 
‘Man conceive; but God hath granted unto some few 
‘to know them even in this Life. Study well, my Son, 
‘the saying of the Apostle, Knowledge puffeth up. It 


144 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


‘is a good Gift of God, but when it lifts up the Mind 
‘above the Cross of Christ, it is the Pride of Life, and 
‘the High-way to Apostacy, wherein many Men of 
‘great Learning and Hopes have perished.—lIn all the 
‘Exercise of your Gifts, and Improvement of your 
‘Talents, have an Eye to your Master's End, more than 
‘your own; and to the Day of your Account, that you 
‘may then have your Quietus est, even, Well done, 
‘Good and Faithful Servant! But my last and chief 
‘Request to you, is, that you be careful to have your 
‘Children brought up in the Knowledge and Fear of 
‘God, and in the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thts 
‘will give you the best Comfort of them, and keep them 
‘sure from any Want or Miscarriage: And when you 
‘part from them, it will be no small joy to your Soul, 
‘that you shall meet them again in Heaven! 

Doubtless, the Reader considers the Aztstorical 
Passages in this Extract of the Letter thus Recited. 
Now, but by making this Reflection upon the Rest, 
that as the Prophetical Part of it was notably fulfilled 
in the Estate, whereto the good Providence of God 
Recovered this Worthy Gentleman and his Family, 
so the Monitory Part of it was most Exemplarily at- 
tended in his Holy and Useful Conversation. I shall 
therein briefly sum up the Life of a Person whom we 
shall call a Second unto none of our Worthies, but as 
we call him our Second Winthrop. 


EPIVAPHIUM. 


Abi Viator; 
Et Luge plures Magisiratus in Uno pertisse. 
Redi Viator. 
Non Perit, sed ad Celestem Societaiem 


ASSISTENTS 145 


Regia Magis Regiam, 
Vere Adeptus, 
A biit: 
WINTHROPUS, Non minor magnis Majoribus.3 


CHAR rex: 

ASSISTENTS. 
AGISTRATES of Connecticut-Colony, 
before New-Haven Colony was actually 
annexed unto it, were, (besides the two 


Alternately, for the most Part, Elected Governours, 
HOPKINS, and HAINS.) 


Roger Ludlow, 1636 
John Steel, 1636 
William Phelps, 1636 
William Westwood, 1636 
Andrew Ward, 1636 
Thomas Wells, 1637 
William Swayn, TOW 
Matthew Mitchel, 1637 
George Hull, 1637 
William Whiting, 1637 
John Mason, — 1637 
George Willis, 1639 
John Webster, 1639 
Wiliam Ludlow, 1640 


1“ Epitaph. Go, wayfarer, and bewail many magistrates who 
have died in this one. Return, traveler. He has not died, but, one 
who has truly succeeded, has gone to a heavenly society more royal 
than the Royal Society: Winthrop, not inferior to the great elders of 
his name.” 


146 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Wiliam Hopkins, 1642 
Henry Woolcot, 1643 
George Fenwick, 1644 
Cosmore, 1647 

John Howel, 1647 
John Cullick, 1648 
Henry Clark, 1650 
John Winthrop, 1651 
Thomas Topping, 1651 
John Talcot, 1654 
John Ogden, 1656 
Nathan Gold, 1657 
Matthew Allyn, 1658 
Richard Treat, 1658 
Thomas Baker, 1658 
Mulford, 1658 
Alexander Knowles, 1658 
John Wells, 1658 
Robert Band, 1659 
Rayner, 1661 

John Allyn, 1662 
Daniel Clark, 1662 
Samuel Sherman, 1662 
John Young, 1664 


MAGISTRATES of New-Haven Colony, before Con- 
necticut-Colony could accomplish its Coalition 
therewith, were, (besides the Governours elsewhere 
mentioned) 


Stephen Goodyear, 1637 
Thomas Grigson, 1637 
Richard Malbon, 1637 


William Leet, 1637 


ASSISTENTS 


John Desborough, 
Tapp, 
William Fowler, 
Francis Newman, 
A stwood, 
Samuel Eaton, 
Benjamin Fen, 
Matthew Gilbert, 
Jasper Crane, 
Robert Treat, 
William Jones, 


147 


1637 
1637 
1637 
1653 
1653 
1654 
1654 
1658 
1658 
1659 
1662 


MAGISTRATES after the Two Colonies were content, 


according to their Charter, to become ONE, were, 


John Winthrop, Gov. 
John Mason, 
Matthew Allyn, 
Samuel Willys, 
Nathan Gold, 
John Talcot 

Henry Woolcot, 
John Allyn, 
Samuel Sherman, 
James Richards, 
William Leet, 
William Jones, 
Benjamin Fen, 
Jasper Crane, 
Daniel Clark, 
Alexander Bryans, 
James Bishop, 
Anthony Howkins, 
Thomas Wells, 


1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1666 
1668 
1668 
1668 
1668 


148 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


John Nash, 1672 
Robert Treat, 1673 
Thomas Topping, 1674 
Matthew Gilbert, 1677 
Andrew Leet, 1678 
John Wadsworth, 1679 
Robert Chapman, 1681 
James Fitch, 1681 
Samuel Mason, 1683 
Benjamin Newberry, 1685 
Samuel Talcot, _ 1685 
Giles Hamlin, 1685 


While the Colonies were Clusters of Rich Grapes, 
which had a Blessing in them.' Such Leaves as these 
(which is in the Proverbs of the Jewish Nation, a Name 
for Magistrates) happily defended them from the 
Storms that molest the World. 

Those of the least Character among them, yet came 
up to what the Roman Commonwealth required in 
their Magistrates. 


Populus Romanus delegit Magistratus, quasi Ret- 
publice Villicos, in quibus, s1 qua preterea est Ars, 
facile patitur; sin minus, virtute eorum &F Innocentia 
Contentus est.2 Cic. Orat. Pro Plan. 


1 The sense seems to require a comma, not a period, here. 

2“The Roman people chose magistrates as if they were stewards 
of the state, in whom any other ability 1s welcomed, but if no such 
other ability exists, they were content with the virtue and honesty 
of those they chose.” The quotation is from Cicero. 


Pietas in Patriam:' 


THE 
LIFE 
OF HIS 
EXCELLENCY 
sir WILLIAM PHIPPS, Knt. 

Late Captain General, and Governour in Chief of the 
Province of the Massachuset-Bay, 
NEW-ENGLAND. 

Containing the Memorable Changes Undergone, and 
Actions Performed by Him. 


Written by one intimately acquainted with Him. 
Discite Virtutem ex Hoc, verumque Laborem.? 


1“ Love to one’s country.” 
2 “VT earn virtue and true labor from him.”’ 


HE Author of the following Narrative, is a 

: Person of such well known Integrity, Pru- 
dence and Veracity, that there is not any 

cause to Question the Truth of what he here Relates. 
And moreover, this Writing of his is adorned with a 
very grateful Variety of Learning, and doth contain 
such surprizing workings of Providence, as do well 
deserve due Notice and Observation. On all which 
accounts, it is with just Confidence recommended to 


the Publick by 
ely alk p96 Nath. Mather, 
1697. John Howe, 


Maith. Mead. 


1 Nathaniel Mather was Cotton Mather’s uncle, at this time in 
England. When the Magnalia came out he was dead, the certificate 
above being simply reprinted from the first edition of the Life of 
Phips. John Howe and Matthew Mead were two leading English 
Puritan divines, both friends of Cotton Mather’s father and uncle. 


To his Excellency the Earl of Bellomont, Baron of 
Coloony in Ireland, General Governour of the Prov- 
ince of Massachusets in New-England, and the 
Provinces annexed. 


May it please your Excellency, 

y NHE Station in which the Hand of the God 
of Heaven hath disposed His Majesties Heart 
to place your Honour, doth so manifestly 

entitle your Lordship to this ensuing Narrative, that 

its being thus Presented to your Excellencies Hand, 
is thereby both Apologized for and Justified. I believe, 
had the Writer of it, when he Penned it, had any Knowl- 
edge of your Excellency, he would himself have done 
it, and withal, would have amply and publickly Con- 
gratulated the People of New-England, on account of 
their having such a Governour, and your Excellency, 
on account of your being made Governour over them. 

For though as to some other thiugs! it may possibly be 

a place to some Persons not so desirable; yet I believe 

this Character may be justly given of them, that they 

are the best People under Heaven; there being among 
them, not only less of open Profaneness, and less of 

Lewdness, but also more of the serious Profession, 

Practice, and Power of Christianity, in proportion to 

their number, than is among any other People upon 

the Face of the whole Earth. Not but I doubt, there 
are many bad Persons among them, and too many 
distemper’d Humours, perhaps even among those who 
are truly good. It would be a wonder if it should be 
otherwise; for it hath of late Years, on various accounts, 


1 Things. 
IST 


152 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


and some very singular and unusual ones, been a Day 
of sore Temptation with that whole People. Never- 
theless, as I look upon it as a Favour from God to 
those Plantations, that he hath set your Excellency 
over them, so I do account it a Favour from God to 
your Excellency, that he hath committed and trusted 
in your Hand so great a part of his peculiar Treasure 
and precious Jewels, as are among that People. Besides, 
that on other accounts the Lord Jesus hath more of 
a visible Interest in New-England, than in any of the 
Outgoings of the English Nation in America. They 
have at their own Charge not only set up Schools of 
lower Learning up and down the Country; but have 
also erected an University, which hath been the happy 
Nursery of many Useful, Learned, and excellently 
Accomplished Persons. And moreover, from them 
hath the blessed Gospel been Preached to the Poor, — 
Barbarous, Savage Heathen there; and it hath taken 
such Root among them, that there were lately four and 
twenty Assemblies in which the Name of the Lord | 
Jesus was constantly called on, and celebrated in their 
own Language. In these things New-England out-— 
shineth all the Colonies of the English in those goings — 
down of the Sun. I know your Excellency will Favour 
and Countenance their University, and also the Prop- 
agating of the Gospel among the Natives; for the 
Interest of Christ in that Part of the Earth is much 
concerned in them. That the God of the Spirits of — 
all Flesh would abundantly replenish your Excellency — 
with a suitable Spirit for the Service to which he hath — 
called your Lordship, that he would give your Honour 
a prosperous Voyage thither, and when there, make 


WILLIAM PHIPS 153 


your Excellency a rich Blessing to that People, and 
them a rejoicing to your Excellency, is the Prayer of, 


April 27. My Lord, 
1697. 
Your Excellencies most 


Humble Servant, 


Nath. Mather. 





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EEE 
LIFE 
Of His EXCELLENCY 
Sir WILLIAM PHIPS, Kant. 
LATE 
GOVERNOUR 
OF 
NEW-ENGLAND. 


with a whole Tribe of Labourers in the Fire, 

since that Learned Man, find it no easie thing 
to make the common part of Mankind believe, 
That they can take a Plant in its more vigorous Con- 
sistence, and after a due Maceration, Fermentation and 
Separation, extract the Salt of that Plant, which, as 
it were, in a Chaos, invisibly reserves the Form of the 
whole, with its vital Principle; and, that keeping the 
Salt in a Glass Hermetically sealed, they can, by apply- 
ing a Soft Fire to the Glass, make the Vegetable rise by 
little and little out of its Ashes, to surprize the Specta- 
tors with a notable Illustration of that Resurrection, 
in the Faith whereof the Jews returning from the 
Graves of their Friends, pluck up the Grass from the 
Earth, using those Words of the Scripture thereupon, 
Your Bones shall flourish like an Herb: "Vis likely, that 
all the Observations of such Writers, as the Incom- 
parable Borellus, will find it hard enough to produce 
our Belief, that the Essential Salts of Animals may be 
so Prepared and Preserved, that an Ingenious Man may 
have the whole 4rk of Noah in his own Study, and raise 
the fine Shape of an Animal out of its Ashes at his 
Pleasure: And, that by the like Method from the 


155 


§ 1. [ such a Renowned Chymist, as Quercetanus, 


156 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Essential Salts of Humane Dust, a Philosopher may, 
without any Criminal Necromancy, call up the Shape 
of any Dead Ancestor from the Dust whereinto his 
Body has been Incinerated.’ The Resurrection of the 
Dead, will be as Just, as Great an Article of our Creed, 
although the Relations of these Learned Men should 
pass for Incredible Romances: But yet there is an 
Anticipation of that Blessed Resurrection, carrying 
in it some Resemblance of these Curiosities, which is 
performed, when we do in a Book, as in a Glass, reserve 
the History of our Departed Friends; and by bringing 
our Warm Affections unto such an History, we revive, 
as it were, out of their dshes, the true Shape of those 
Friends, and bring to a fresh View, what was Memorable 
and Imitable in them. Now, in as much as Mortality 
has done its part upon a Considerable Person, with 
whom I had the Honour to be well acquainted, and a 
Person as Memorable for the Wonderful Changes which 
befel him, as Imitable for his Virtues and Actions under 
those Changes; I shall endeavour, with the Chymistry 
of an Impartial Historian, to raise my Friend so far 
out of his Ashes, as to shew him again unto the World; 
and if the Character of Heroick Virtue be for a Man 
to deserve well of Mankind, and be great in the Purpose 
and Success of Essays to do so, | may venture to promise 
my Reader such Example of Heroick Virtue, in the 
Story whereto I Invite him, that he shall say, it would 
have been little short of a Vice in me, to have withheld 
it from him. Nor is it any Partiality for the Memory 
of my Deceased Friend, or any other Sinister Design 
whatsoever, that has Invited me to this Undertaking; 


4 Quercetanus is Joseph du Chesne, a French medical writer, who 
died in 1609. Borellus is Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, 1608-1679, author 
of De Motu Animalium. 








WILLIAM PHIPS 167 


but I have undertaken this Matter from a sincere 
Desire, that the Ever-Glorious Lord JESUS CHRIST 
may have the Glory of his Power and Goodness, and of 
his Providence, in what he did for such a Person, and 
in what he disposed and assisted that Person to do for 
him. Now, May he assist my Writing, even he that 
prepared the Subject, whereof I am to Write! 

§ 2. So obscure was the Original of that Memorable 
Person, whose Actions I am going to relate, that I 
must, in a way of Writing, like that of Plutarch, prepare 
my Reader for the intended Relation, by first searching 
the Archives of Antiquity for a Parallel. Now, because 


~ we will not Parallel him with Eumenes, who, though he 


were the Son of a Poor Carrier, became a Governour 
of Mighty Provinces; nor with Marius, whose mean 
Parentage did not hinder his becoming a Glorious 


_ Defender of his Country, and Seven times the Chief 


Magistrate of the Chiefest City in the Universe: Nor 


with [phicrates, who became a Successful and Renowned 


General of a Great People, though his Father were a 


— Cobler: Nor with Dioclestan, the Son of a poor Scrive- 


ner: Nor with Bonosus, the Son of a poor School- 


_ Master, who yet came to sway the Scepter of the Roman 


Empire: Nor, lastly, will I compare him to the more 
late Example of the Celebrated Mazarini, who though 
no Gentleman by his Extraction, and one so sorrily 
Educated, that he might have wrote Man, before he 


could write at all; + yet ascended unto that Grandeur, 


in the Memory of many yet living, as to Umpire the 


most Important Affairs of Christendom: We will decline 


looking any further in that Hemisphere of the World, 

and make the Hue and Cry throughout the Regions of 

America, the New World, which He, that is becoming 
1 ],¢.. was a man grown before he learned to write, 


158 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


the Subject of our History, by his Nativity, belong’d 
unto. And in America, the first that meets me, is 
Francisco Pizarro, who, though a Spurious Offspring, 
exposed when a Babe in a Church-Porch, at a sorry 
Village of Navarre, and afterwards employ’d while 
he was a Boy, in keeping of Cattel, yet, at length, 
stealing into America, he so thrived upon his Adven- 
tures there, that upon some Discoveries, which with 
an handful of Men he had in a desperate Expedition 
made of Peru, he obtain’d the King of Spain’s Commis- 
sion for the Conquest of it, and at last so incredibly 
enrich’d himself by the Conquest, that he was made 
the first Vice-Roy of Peru, and created Marquess of 
A natilla. 

To the Latter and Highest Part of that Story, if 
any thing hindred His Excellency Sir WILLIAM 
PHIPS, from affording of a Parallel, it was not the 
want either of Design, or of Courage, or of Conduct in 
himself, but it was the Fate of a Premature Mortality. 
For my Reader now being satished, that a Person’s 
being Obscure in his Original, is not always a Just 
Prejudice to an Expectation of Considerable Matters 
from him; I shall now inform him, that this our PHJ PS 
was Born Feb. 2. 4. Dom. 1650. at a despicable Plan- 
tation on the River of Kennebeck, and almost the 
furthest Village of the Eastern Settlement of New- 
England. And as the Father of that Man, which 
was as great a Blessing as England had in the Age of 
that Man, was a Smith,! so a Gun-Smith, namely, 
James Phips, once of Bristol, had the Honour of being 
the Father to him, whom we shall presently see, made 
by the God of Heaven as great a Blessing to New-Eng- 


1 Mather refers to Thomas Cromwell, 


WILLIAM PHIPS 159 


land, as that Country could have had, if they themselves 
had pleased. His fruitful Mother, yet living, had no 
less than Twenty-Six Children, whereof Twenty-One 
were Sons; but Equivalent to them all was WILLIAM, 
one of the youngest, whom his Father dying, left young 
with his Mother, and with her he lived, keeping of Sheep 
in the Wilderness, until he was Eighteen Years Old; 
at which time he began to feel some further Disposi- 
tions of Mind from that Providence of God which took 
him from the Sheepfolds, from following the Ewes great 
with young, and brought him to feed his People. Reader, 
enquire no further who was his Father? Thou shalt 
anon see, that he was, as the Italians express it, 4 Son 
to his own Labours! 

§3. His Friends earnestly solicited him to settle 
among them in a Plantation of the East; but he had an 
Unaccountable Impulse upon his Mind, perswading 
him, as he would privately hint unto some of them, 
That he was Born to greater Matters. To come at those 
greater Matters, his first Contrivance was to bind him- 
self an Apprentice unto a Ship-Carpenter for Four 
Years; in which time he became a Master of the Trade, 
that once in a Vessel of more than Forty Thousand 
Tuns, repaired the Ruins of the Earth; Noah’s, I 
mean; he then betook himself an Hundred and Fifty 
Miles further a Field, even to Boston, the Chief 
Town of New-England; which being a Place of the most 
Business and Resort in those Parts of the World, he 
expected there more Commodiously to pursue the 
Spes Majorum & Meliorum,' Hopes which had inspir’d 
him. At Boston, where it was that he now learn’d, 
first of all, to Read and Write, he followed his Trade for 
about a Year; and by a laudable Deportment, so recom- 

1“ Hopes of greater and better things.” 


160 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


mended himself, that he Married a Young Gentle- 
woman of good Repute, who was the Widow of one 
Mr. John Hull, a well-bred Merchant, but the Daughter 
of one Captain Roger Spencer, a Person of good Fashion, 
who having suffer’>d much damage in his Estate, by 
some unkind and unjust Actions, which he bore with 
such Patience, that for fear of thereby injuring the 
Publick, he would not seek Satisfaction, Posterity might 
afterward see the Reward of his Patience, in what 
Providence hath now done for one of his own Posterity. 
Within a little while after his Marriage, he indented 
with several Persons in Boston, to Build them a Ship at 
Sheeps-coat) River, Two or Three Leagues Eastward 
of Kennebeck; where having Lanched the Ship, he also 
provided a Lading of Lumber to bring with him, which 
would have been to the Advantage of all Concern’d. 
But just as the Ship was hardly finished, the Barbarous 
Indians on that River, broke forth into an Open and 
Cruel War upon the English; and the miserable People, 
surprized by so sudden a storm of Blood, had no Refuge 
from the Infidels, but the Ship now finishing in the 
Harbour. Whereupon he left his intended Lading be- 
hind him, and instead thereof, carried with him his 
old Neighbours and their Families, free of all Charges, 
to Boston; so the first Action that he did, after he was 
his own Man, was to save his Father's House, with the 
rest of the Neighbourhood, from Ruin; but the Dis- 
appointment which befel him from the Loss of his 
other Lading, plunged his Affairs into greater Embaras- 
ments with such as had employ’d him. - 

§4. But he was hitherto no more than beginning 
to make Scaffolds for further and higher Actions! 
He would frequently tell the Gentlewoman his Wife, 

1 Sheepscot. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 161 


That he should yet be Captain of a King’s Ship; That he 
should come to have the Command of better Men than 
he was now accounted himself; and, That he should be 
Owner of a Fair Brick-House in the Green-Lane of 
North-Boston; and, That, it may be, this would not be 
all that the Providence of God would bring him to. 
She entertained these Passages with a sufficient Incredul- 
ity; but he had so serious and positive an Expectation 
of them, that it is not easie to say, what was the Original 
thereof. He was of an Enterprizing Genius, and natu- 
rally disdained Littleness: But his Disposition for 
Business was of the Dutch Mould, where, with a little 
shew of Wit, there is as much Wisdom demonstrated, 
as can be shewn by any Nation. His Talent lay not in 
the 4irs that serve chiefly for the pleasant and sudden 
Turns of Conversation; but he might say, as Themis- 
tocles, Though he could not play upon a Fiddle, yet he 
knew how to make a little City become a Great One. He 
would prudently contrive a weighty Undertaking, and 
then patiently pursue it unto the End. He was of an 
Inclination, cutting rather like a Hatchet, than like a 
Razor; he would propose very Considerable Matters 
to himself, and then so cut through them, that no Dif- 
ficulties could put by the Edge of his Resolutions. Being 
thus of the True Temper, for doing of Great Things, 
he betakes himself to the Sea, the Right Scene for such 
Things; and upon Advice of a Spanish Wreck about 
the Bahama’s, he took a Voyage thither; but with little 
more success, than what just served him a little to 
furnish him for a Voyage to England; whither he went 
in a Vessel, not much unlike that which the Dutchmen 
stamped on their First Coin, with these Words about 
it, Incertum quo Fata ferant.1 Having first informed 


1 “Tt is uncertain where the Fates will carry me.” 


162 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


himself that there was another Spanish Wreck, wherein 
was lost a mighty Treasure, hitherto undiscovered, 
he had a strong Impression upon his Mind that He 
must be the Discoverer; and he made such Representa- 
tions of his Design at White-Hall, that by the Year 
1683. he became the Captain of a King’s Ship, and 
arrived at New-England Commander of the Algier- 
Rose, a Frigot of Eighteen Guns, and Ninety-Five 
Men. 

§5. To Relate all the Dangers through which he 
passed, both by Sea and Land, and all the Tiresome 
Trials of his Patience, as well as of his Courage, while 
Year after Year the most vexing Accidents imaginable 
delay’d the Success of his Design, it would even Tire 
the patience of the Reader: For very great was the 
Experiment that Captain Phips made of the Italian 
Observation, He that cann’t suffer both Good and Evil, 
will never come to any great Preferment. Wherefore I 
shall supersede all Journal of his Voyages to and fro, 
with reciting one Instance of his Conduct, that show’d 
him to be a Person of no contemptible Capacity. 
While he was Captain of the 4/gier-Rose, his Men grow- 
ing weary of their unsuccessful Enterprize, made a 
Mutiny, wherein they approach’d him on the Quarter- 
Deck, with Drawn Swords in their Hands, and required 
him to join with them in Running away with the Ship, 
to drive a Trade of Piracy on the South Seas. Captain 
Phips, though he had not so much of a Weapon as an 
Ox-Goad, or a Jaw-bone in his Hands, yet like another 
Shamgar or Samson, with a most undaunted Fortitude, 
he rush’d in upon them, and with the Blows of his bare 
Hands, Fell’d many of them, and Quell’d all the Rest. 
But this is not the Instance which I intended: That 
which I intend is, That (as it has been related unto me) 


WILLIAM PHIPS 163 


One Day while his Frigot lay Careening,! at a desolate 
Spanish Island, by the side of a Rock, from whence 
they had laid a Bridge to the Shoar, the Men, whereof 
he had about an Hundred, went all, but about Eight 
or Ten, to divert themselves, as they pretended, in the 
Woods: Where they all entred into an Agreement, 
which they Sign’d in a Ring, That about seven a 
Clock that Evening they would seize the Captain, 
and those Eight or Ten, which they knew to be True 
unto him, and leave them to perish on this Island, and 
so be gone away unto the South Sea to seek their Fortune. 
Will the Reader now imagine, that Captain Phips 
having Advice of this Plot but about an Hour and 
half before it was to be put in Execution, yet within 
Two Hours brought all these Rogues down upon their 
Knees to beg for their Lives? But so it was! For 
these Knaves considering that they should want a 
Carpenter with them in their Villanous Expedition, sent 
a Messenger to fetch unto them the Carpenter, who was 
then at Work upon the Vessel: and unto him they 
shew'd their Articles; telling him what he must look 
for if he did not subscribe among them. The Carpenter 
being an honest Fellow, did with much importunity 
prevail for one half hours Time to consider of the Mat- 
ter; and returning to Work upon the Vessel, with a 
Spy by them set upon him, he feigned himself taken 
with a Fit of the Cholick, for the Relief whereof he 
suddenly run unto the Captain in the Great Cabbin 
for a Dram; where, when he came, his business was 
only in brief, to tell the Captain of the horrible Distress 
which he was fallen into; but the Captain bid him as 
briefly return to the Rogues in the Woods, and Sign 


17. ¢., lay on her side, so that the bottom might be cleaned and 
calked. 


164 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


their Articles, and leave him to provide for the Rest. 
The Carpenter was no sooner gone, but Captain Phips 
calling together the few Friends (it may be seven or 
eight) that were left him aboard, whereof the Gunner 
was one, demanded of them, whether they would stand 
by him in the Extremity, which he informed them was 
now come upon him; whereto they reply’d, They 
would stand by him, if he could save them; and he An- 
swerd, By the help of God he did not fear it. All their 
Provisions had been carried Ashoar to a Vent, made 
for that purpose there; about which they had placed 
several Great Guns to defend it, in case of any Assault 
from Spaniards, that might happen to come that way. 
Wherefore Captain Phips immediately ordered those 
Guns to be silently Drawn’d! and Turn’d; and so pulling 
up the Bridge, he charged his Great Guns aboard, 
and brought them to Bear on every side of the Tent. 
Bythis Time the Army of Rebels comes out of the Woods; 
but as they drew near to the Tent of Provisions, they 
saw such a change of Circumstances, that they cried 
out, We are Betray’d! And they were soon confirm’d 
in it, when they heard the Captain with a stern Fury 
call to them, Stand off, ye Wretches, at your Peril! He 
quickly saw them cast into a more than ordinary Con- 
fusion, when they saw Him ready to Fire his Great 
Guns upon them, if they offered one Step further than 
he permitted them: And when he had signified unto 
them his Resolve to abandon them unto all the Deso- 
lation which they had purposed for him, he caused 
the Bridge to be again laid, and his Men begun to take 
the Provisions abroad. When the Wretches beheld 
what was coming upon them, they fell to very humble 
Entreaties; and at last fell down upon their Knees, 
1 Drawn. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 165 


protesting, That they never had any thing against him, 
except only his unwillingness to go away with the King’s 
Ship upon the South-Sea Design: But upon all other 
Accounts, they would chuse rather to Live and Die with 
him, than with any Man tn the World; however, since they 
saw how much he was dissatisfied at it, they would insist 
upon it no more, and humbly begg’d his Pardon. And 
when he judg’d that he had kept them on their Knees 
long enough, he having first secur’d their 4rms, received 
them aboard; but he immediately weighed Anchor, 
and arriving at Jamaica, he Turn’d them off. Now 
with a small Company of other Men he sailed from 
thence to Hispaniola, where by the Policy of his Ad- 
dress, he fished out of a very old Spaniard, (or Portu- 
guese) a little Advice about the true Spot where lay 
the Wreck which he had been hitherto seeking, as 
unprosperously, as the Chymists have their Aurisick 
Stone: * That it was upon a Reef of Shoals, a few Leagues 
to the Northward of Port de la Plata, upon Hispaniola,” 
a Port so call’d, it seems, from the Landing of some 
of the Shipwreck’d Company, with a Boat full of Plate, 
saved out of their Sinking Frigot: Nevertheless, when 
he had searched very narrowly the Spot, whereof the 
old Spaniard had advised him, he had not hitherto 
exactly lit upon it. Such Thorns did vex his Affairs 
while he was in the Rose-Frigot; but none of all these 
things could retund the Edge of his Expectations to 
find the Wreck; with such Expectations he return’d 
then into England, that he might there better furnish 
himself to Prosecute a New Discovery; for though he 
judged he might, by proceeding a little further, have 


1 Probably a misprint for Aurific Stone—1. ¢., “gold-producing” 
stone, the “ philosopher’s stone.” 
rl aiti, 


166 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


come at the right Spot, yet he found his present Com- 
pany too ill a Crew to be confided in. 


§6. So proper was his Behaviour, that the best 
Noble Men in the Kingdom now admitted him into 
their Conversation; but yet he was opposed by powerful 
Enemies, that Clogg’d his Affairs with such Demur- 
rages, and such Disappointments, as would have wholly 
Discouraged his Designs, if his Patience had not been 
Invincible. He who can wait, hath what he desireth. 
This his Indefatigable Patience, with a proportionable 
Diligence, at length overcame the Difficulties that had 
been thrown in his way; and prevailing with the Duke 
of Albemarle, and some other Persons of Quality, to 
ft him out, he set Sail for the Fishing-Grownd, which 
had been so well baited half an Hundred Years before: 
And as he had already discovered his Capacity for Busi- 
ness in many considerable Actions, he now added unto 
those Discoveries, by not only providing all, but also 
by inventing many of the Instruments necessary to 
the prosecution of his intended Fishery. Captain 
Phips arriving with a Ship and a Tender at Port de la 
Plata, made a stout Canoo of a stately Cotton-Tree, 
so large as to carry Eight or Ten Oars, for the making 
of which Periaga (as they cail it) he did, with the same 
industry that he did every thing else, employ his own 
Hand and Adse, and endure no little hardship, lying 
abroad in the Woods many Nights together. This 
Periaga, with the Tender, being Anchored at a place 
Convenient, the Periaga kept Busking to and again,! 
but could only discover a Reef of Rising Shoals there- 


1 Periaga is for piragua, a long narrow canoe, made of the hollowed 
trunk of atree. “To busk to and again” meant, in nautical parlance, 
“to cruise about.” 


WILLIAM PHIPS 167 


abouts, called, The Boilers, which Rising to be within 
Two or Three Foot of the Surface of the Sea, were yet 
so steep, that a Ship striking on them, would immedi- 
ately sink down; who could say, how many Fathom 
into the Ocean? Here they could get no other Pay 
for their long peeping among the Boilers, but only such 
as caused them to think upon returning to their Captain 
with the bad News of their total Disappointment. 
Nevertheless, as they were upon the Return, one of 
the Men looking over the side of the Periaga, into the 
calm Water, he spied a Sea Feather,! growing, as he 
judged, out of a Rock; whereupon they had one of their 
Indians to Dive and fetch this Feather, that they might 
however carry home something with them, and make, 
at least, as fair a Triumph as Caligula’s. The Diver 
bringing up the Feather, brought therewithal a surpriz- 
ing Story, That he perceived a Number of Great Guns 
in the Watry World where he had found his Feather; 
the Report of which Great Guns exceedingly astonished 
the whole Company; and at once turned their Des pon- 
dencies for their ill success into Assurances, that they 
had now lit upon the true Spot of Ground which they 
had been looking for; and they were further confirmed 
in these Assurances, when upon further Diving, the 
Indian fetcht up a Sow, as they stil’d it, or a Lump 
of Silver, worth perhaps Two or Three Hundred Pounds. 
Upon this they prudently Buoy’d the place, that they 
might readily find it again; and they went back unto 
their Captain whom for some while they distressed 
with nothing but such Bad News, as they formerly 
thought they must have carried him: Nevertheless, 
they so slipt in the Sow of Silver on one side under the 
Table, where they were now sitting with the Captain, 
1 A kind of coral or polyp. 


168 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


and hearing him express his Resolutions to wait still 
patiently upon the Providence of God under these 
Disappointments, that when he should look on one 
side he might see that Odd Thing before him. At last 
he saw it; seeing it, he cried out with some Agony, Why? 
What ts this? Whence comes this? And then, with 
changed Countenances, they told him how, and where 
they got it: Then, said he, Thanks be to God! We are 
made; and so away they went, all hands to Work; 
wherein they had this one further piece of Remarkable 
Prosperity, that whereas if they had first fallen upon 
that part of the Spanish Wreck, where the Pieces of 
Eight had been stowed in Bags among the Ballast, 
they had seen a more laborious, and less enriching 
time of it: Now, most happily, they first fell upon that 
Room in the Wreck where the Bullion had been stored 
up; and they so prospered in this New Fishery, that in a 
little while they had, without the loss of any Man’s 
Life, brought up Thirty Two Tuns of Silver; for it was 
now come to measuring of Silver by Tuns.! Besides 
which, one Adderly of Providence, who had formerly 
been very helpful to Captain Phips in the Search of 
this Wreck, did upon former Agreement meet him now 
with a little Vessel here; and he, with his few hands, 
took up about Six Tuns of Silver; whereof nevertheless 
he made so little use, that in a Year or [wo he Died at 
Bermudas, and as I have heard, he ran Distracted some 
while before he Died. ‘Thus did there once again come 
into the Light of the Sun, a Treasure which had been 
half an Hundred Years groaning under the Waters: And 
in this time there was grown upon the Plate a Crust 


1“Tun” as a measure of gold meant 100,000 guilders, florins, etc. 
Whether Mather uses it in this sense here, or simply as equivalent 
to “ton,” is not clear. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 169 


like Limestone, to the thickness of several Inches; 
which Crust being broken open by Irons contrived 
for that purpose, they knockt out whole Bushels of 
rusty Pieces of Eight which were grown thereinto. 
Besides that incredible Treasure of Plate in various 
Forms, thus fetch’d up, from Seven or Eight Fathom 
under Water, there were vast Riches of Gold, and 
Pearls, and Jewels, which they also lit upon; and indeed, 
for a more Comprehensive Jnvoice, | must but sum- 
marily say, All that a Spanish Frigot uses to be enricht 
withal. Thus did they continue Fishing till their 
Provisions failing them, ’twas time to be gone; but 
before they went, Captain Phips caused Adderly and 
his Folk to swear, That they would none of them Dis- 
cover the Place of the Wreck, or come to the Place any 
more till the next Year, when he expected again to be 
there himself. And it was also Remarkable, that though 
the Sows came up still so fast, that on the very last 
Day of their being there, they took up Twenty, yet 
it was afterwards found, that they had in a manner 
wholly cleared that Room of the Ship where those 
Massy things were Stowed. 

But there was one extraordinary Distress which 
Captain Phips now found himself plunged into: For 
his Men were come out with him upon Seamens Wages, 
at so much per Month; and when they saw such vast 
Litters of Silver Sows and Pigs, as they call them, come 
on Board them at the Captain’s Call, they knew not 
how to bear it, that they should not share all among 
themselves, and be gone to lead a short Life and a merry, 
in a Climate where the Arrest of those that had hired 
them should not reach them. In this terrible Distress 
he made his Vows unto Almighty God, that if the Lord 
would carry him safe home to England with what he 


170 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


had now given him, to suck of the Abundance of the 
Seas, and of the Treasures hid in the Sands, he would 
for ever Devote himself unto the Interests of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and of his People, especially in the Country 
which he did himself Originally belong unto. And he 
then used all the obliging 4rts imaginable to make his 
Men true unto him, especially by assuring them, that 
besides their Wages, they should have ample Requitals 
made unto them; which if the rest of his Employers 
would not agree-unto, he would himself distribute his 
own share among them. Relying upon the Word of 
One whom they had ever found worthy of their Loze, 
and of their Trust, they declared themselves Content: 
But still keeping a most careful Eye upon them, he 
hastned back for England with as much Money as he 
thought he could then safely Trust his Vessel withal; 
not counting it safe to supply himself with necessary 
Provisions at any nearer Port, and so return unto the 
Wreck, by which delays he wisely feared lest all might 
be lost, more ways than one. Though he also left so 
much behind him, that many from divers Parts made 
very considerable Voyages of Gleanings after his Harvest: 
Which came to pass by certain Bermudians, com- 
pelling of Adderly’s Boy, whom they spirited away with 
them, to tell them the exact place where the Wreck was 
to be found. Captain Phips now coming up to London 
in the Year 1687. with near Three Hundred Thousand 
Pounds Sterling aboard him, did acquit himself with 
such an Exemplary Honesty, that partly by his ful- 
filling his Assurances to the Seamen, and partly by 
his exact and punctual Care to have his Employers 
defrauded of nothing that might conscienciously belong 
unto them, he had less than Sixteen Thousand Pounds 
left unto himself: As an acknowledgment of which 


WILLIAM PHIPS 17% 


Honesty in him, the Duke of Albemarle made unto 
his Wife, whom he never saw, a Present of a Golden 
Cup, near a Thousand Pound in value. The Character 
of an Honest Man he had so merited in the whole Course 
of his Life, and especially in this last act of it, that this, 
in Conjunction with his other serviceable Qualities, 
procured him the Favours of the Greatest Persons in 
the Nation; and he that had been so diligent in his Busi- 
ness, must now stand before Kings, and not stand before 
mean Men. There were indeed certain mean Men, 
if base, little, dirty Tricks, will entitle Men to Mean- 
ness, who urged the King to seize his whole Cargo, in- 
stead of the Tenths, upon his first Arrival; on this 
pretence, that he had not been rightly inform’d of the 
True state of the Case, when he Granted the Patent, 
under the Protection whereof these particular Men had 
made themselves Masters of all this Mighty Treasure; 
but the King replied, That he had been rightly informed 
by Captain Phips of the whole Matter, as it now 
proved; and that it was the Slanders of one then present, 
which had, unto his Damnage, hindred him from heark- 
ning to the Information: Wherefore he would give 
them, he said, no Disturbance; they might keep what 
they had got; but Captain Phips, he saw, was a Person 
of that Honesty, Fidelity and Ability, that he should 
not want his Countenance. Accordingly the King, 
in Consideration of the Service done by him, in bringing 
such a Treasure into the Nation, conferr’d upon him 
_ the Honour of Knighthood; and if we now reckon him, 
A Knight of the Golden Fleece, the Stile’ might pretend 
unto some Circumstances that would justifie it. Or 
call him, if you please, The Knight of Honesty; for it 
was Honesty with Industry that raised him; and he 
ele title, 


172 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


became a Mighty River, without the running in of 
Muddy Water to make him so. Reader, now make a 
Pause, and behold One Ratsed by God! 

§7. I am willing to Employ the Testimonies of 
others, as much as may be, to support the Credit of 
my History: And therefore, as I have hitherto related 
no more than what there are others Others [sic] enough 
to avouch; thus I shall chuse the Words of an Ingenious 
Person Printed at London some Years ago, to express 
the Sum of what remains, whose Words are these; 
‘It has always been Sir William Phips’s Disposition 
‘to seek the Wealth of his People with as great Zeal 
‘and Unweariedness, as our Publicans use to seek their 
‘Loss and Ruin. At first it seems they were in hopes 
‘to gain this Gentleman to their Party, as thinking 
‘him Good Naturd, and easie to be flattered out of 
‘his Understanding; and the more, because they had 
‘the advantage of some, no very good, Treatment that 
‘Sir William had formerly met with from the People 
‘and Government of New-England. But Sir William 
‘soon shewed them, that what they expected would 
‘be his Temptation to lead them into their J1ttle Tricks, 
‘he embraced as a Glorious Opportunity to shew his 
‘Generosity and Greatness of Mind; for, in Imitation of 
‘the Greatest Worthies that have ever been, he rather 
‘chose to join in the Defence of his Country, with 
“some Persons who formerly were none of his Friends, 
‘than become the Head of a Faction, to its Ruin and 
‘Desolation. It seems this Noble Disposition of Sir 
‘William, joined with that Capacity and good Success 
‘wherewith he hath been attended, in Raising himself 
‘by such an Occasion, as it may be, all things considered, 
‘has never happened to any before him, makes these 
‘Men apprehensive; And it must needs heighten 





WILLIAM PHIPS 173 


‘their trouble to see, that he neither hath, nor doth 
‘spare himself, nor any thing that is near and dear 
‘unto him, in promoting the Good of his Native Coun- 
PLY: 

When Sir William Phips was per ardua &F aspera,} 
thus raised into an Higher Orb, it might easily be 
thought that he could not be without Charming Temp- 
tations to take the way on the left hand. But as the 
Grace of God kept him in the midst of none of the 
strictest Company, unto which his Affairs daily led 
him, from abandoning himself to the lewd Vices of 
Gaming, Drinking, Swearing and Whoring, which the 
Men that made England to Sin, debauch’d so many of 
the Gentry into, and he deserved the Salutations of 
the Roman Poet: 


Cum Tu, inter scabiem tantam, &§ Contagia Lucri, 
Nil parvum saptias, &F adhuc Sublimia cures:? 


Thus he was worthy to pass among the Instances of 
Heroick Vertue for that Humility that still Adorned him: 
He was Raised, and though he prudently accommodated 
himself to the Quality whereto he was now Raised, 
yet none could perceive him to be Lifted up. Or, if 
this were not Heroick, yet I will Relate one Thing 
more of him that must certainly be accounted so. 
He had in his own Country of New-England met with 
Provocations that were enough to have Alienated any 
Man Living, that had no more than Flesh and Blood 
in him, from the Service of it; and some that were 
Enemies to that Country, now lay hard at him to join 


1 “Through difficulties and hardships.” 
“You, amid so great a leprosy and contagion of avarice, are 
wise, and seek higher things.” 


174 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


with them in their Endeavours to Ravish away their 
Ancient Liberties. But this Gentleman had _ studied 
another way to Revenge himself upon his Country, and 
that was toserve it in all zts Interests, with all of his,even 
with his Estate, his Time, his Care, his Friends, and his 
very Life! The old Heathen Virtue of PIETAS IN 
PATRIAM, or LOVE TO ONES COUNTRY, he 
turned into Christian; and so notably exemplified it, 
in all the Rest of his Life, that it will be an Essential 
Thread which is to be now interwoven into all that 
remains of his History, and his Character. Accordingly 
though he had the Offers of a very Gainful Place among 
the Commissioners of the Navy, with many other Invita- 
tions to settle himself in England, nothing but a Return 
to New-England would content him. And whereas the 
Charters of New-England being taken away, there was 
a Governour Imposed upon the Territories with as 
Arbitrary and as Treasonable a Commission, perhaps, 
as ever was heard of; a Commission, by which the 
Governour, with Three or Four more, none of whom 
were chosen by the People, had Power to make what 
Laws they would, and Levy Taxes, according to their 
own Humours, upon the People; and he himself had 
Power to send the best Men in the Land more than 
Ten Thousand Miles out of it, as he pleased: And in 
the Execution of his Power, the Country was every Day 
suffering Intollerable Jnvasions upon their Proprieties, 
yea, and the Lives of the best Men in the Territory 
began to be practised upon: Sir William Phips applied 
himself to Consider what was the most significant 
Thing that could be done by him for that poor People 
in their present Circumstances. Indeed, when King 
James offered, as he did, unto Sir William Phips an 
Opportunity to Ask what he pleased of him, Sir William 


WILLIAM PHIPS 176 


Generously prayed for nothing but this, That New- 
England might have its lost Priviledges Restored. The 
King then Replied, 4ny Thing but that! Whereupon 
he set himself to Consider what was the next Thing 
that he might ask for the Service, not of himself, but 
of his Country. The Result of his Consideration was, 
That by Petition to the King, he Obtained, with expence 
of some Hundreds of Guinea’s, a Patent, which con- 
stituted him The High Sheriff of that Country;! hoping, 
by his Deputies in that Office, to supply the Country 
still with Consciencious Juries, which was the only 
Method that the New-Englanders had left them to 
secure any thing that was Dear unto them. Furnished 
with this Patent, after he had, in Company with Sir John 
Narborough, made a Second Visit unto the Wreck, 
(not so advantageous as the former for a Reason already 
mentioned) in his way he Returned unto New-England, 
in the Summer of the Year 1688. able, after Five Years 
Absence, to Entertain his Lady with some Accomplish- 
ment of his Predictions; and then Built himself a 
Fair Brick House in the very place which we foretold, 
the Reader can tell how many Sections ago. But the 
Infamous Government then Rampant there, found a 
way wholly to put by the Execution of this Patent; yea, 
he was like to have had his Person Assassinated in the 
Face of the Sun, before his own Door, which with some 
further Designs then in his Mind, caused him within 
a few Weeks to take another Voyage for England. 

$8. It would require a long Summers-Day to 
Relate the Miseries which were come, and coming in 
upon poor New-England, by reason of the Arbitrary 
Government then imposed on them; a Government 
wherein, as old Wendover says of the Time, when Stran- 

1 Provost Marshal-general of New England. 


176 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


gers were domineering over Subjects in England, Judicia 
committebantur Injustis, Leges Exlegibus, Pax Discor- 
dantibus, Justitia Injuriosis;' and Foxes were made the 
Administrators of Justice to the Poultrey; yet some 
Abridgment of them is necessary for the better under- 
standing of the Matters yet before us. Now to make 
this Abridgment Impartial, I shall only have Recourse 
unto a little Book, Printed at London, under the Title 
of The Revolution of New-England Justified; wherein 
we have a Narrative of the Grievances under the Male 
Administrations of that Government, written and 
signed by the chief Gentlemen of the Governour’s Coun- 
cil; together with the Sworn Testimonies of many good 
Men, to prove the several Articles of the Declaration, 
which the Nezw-Englanders published against their 
Oppressors. It is in that Book demonstrated.’ 

That the Governour neglecting the greater Number 
of his Council, did Adhere principally to the Advice 
of a few Strangers, who were Persons without any 
Interest in the Country, but of declared Prejudice 
against it, and had plainly laid their Designs to make 
an Unreasonable Profit of the poor People: And four 
or five Persons had the absolute Rule over a Territory, 
the most Considerable of any belonging to the Crown. 

That when Laws were proposed in the Council, tho’ 
the Major part at any time Dissented from them, yet 
if the Governour were positive, there was no fair 
Counting the Number of Councellors Consenting, or 


Dissenting, but the Laws were immediately Engrossed, 
Published and Executed. 


1“ Judgments were entrusted to the unjust, laws to outlaws, peace 
to quarrelers, and justice to wrongdoers.” Wendover was Roger 
de Wendover, historian, who died in 1236. 

2 A colon instead of a period here makes the sense clear. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 177 


That this Junto made a Law, which prohibited the 
Inhabitants of any Town to meet about their Town- 
Affairs above once in a Year; for fear, you must Note, 
of their having any opportunity to Complain of Griev- 
ances. 

That they made another Law, requiring all Masters 
of Vessels, even Shallops and Woodboats, to give 
Security, that no Man should be Transported in them, 
except his Name had been so many Days posted up: 
Whereby the Pockets of a few Leeches had been filled 
with Fees, but the whole Trade of the Country de- 
stroyed; and all Attempts to obtain a Redress of these 
Things obstructed; and when this 4ct had been strenu- 
ously opposed in Council at Boston, they carried it as 
far as New-York, where a Crew of them enacted it. 

That without any Assembly, they Levied on the 
People a Penny in the Pound of all their Estates, and 
Twenty-pence per Head, as Poll-money, with a Penny 
in the Pound for Goods Imported, besides a Vast Excise 
on Wine; Rum; and other Liguors. 

That when among the Inhabitants of Ispwich, some 
of the Principal Persons modestly gave Reasons why 
they could not chuse a Commissioner to Tax the Town, 
until the King should first be Petitioned for the Liberty 
of an Assembly, they were committed unto Goal for it, 
as an High Misdemeanour, and were denied an Habeas 
Corpus, and were dragg’d many Miles out of their 
own County to answer it at a Court in Boston; where 
Jurors were pickt for the Turn, that were not Free- 
holders, nay, that were meer Sojourners; and when the 
Prisoners pleaded the Priviledges of English-men, That 
they should not be Taxed without their own consent; 
they were told, That those things would not follow them 

1 Small boats used for transporting wood. 


178 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


to the ends of the Earth: As it had been before told them 
in open Council, no one in the Council contradicting it, 
You have no more Priviledges left you, but this, that you 
are not bought and sold for Slaves: And in fine, they were 
all Fined severely, and laid under great Bonds for 
their good Behaviour; besides all which, the hungry 
Officers extorted Fees from them that amounted unto an 
Hundred and Threescore Pounds; whereas in England, 
upon the like Prosecution, the Fees would not have 
been Ten Pounds in all. After which fashion the 
Townsmen of many other Places were also served. 

That these Men giving out, That the Charters being 
lost, all the Title that the People had unto their Lands 
was lost with them; they began to compel the People 
everywhere to take Patents for their Lands: And ac- 
cordingly Writs of Intrusion were issued out against 
the chief Gentlemen in the Territory, by the Terror 
whereof, many were actually driven to Petition for 
Patents, that they might quietly enjoy the Lands that 
had been Fifty or Sixty Years in their Possession; but 
for these Patents there were such exorbitant Prices 
demanded, that Fifty Pounds could not purchase for 
its Owner an Estate not worth Two Hundred, nor 
could all the Money and Moveables in the Territory 
have defrayed the Charges of Patenting the Lands 
at the Hands of these Crocodiles: Besides the consider- 
able Quit-Rents for the King. Yea, the Governour 
caused the Lands of particular Persons to be measured 
out, and given to his Creatures: And some of his Coun- 
cil Petitioned for the Commons belonging to several 
Towns; and the Agents of the Towns going to get a 
voluntary Subscription of the Inhabitants to maintain 
their Title at Law, they have been dragg’d Forty or 
Fifty Miles to answer as Criminals at the next Assizes; 


WILLIAM PHIPS 179 


the Officers in the mean time extorting Three Pounds 
per Man for fetching ‘them. 

That if these Harpies, at any time, were a little out 
of Money, they found ways to Imprison the dest Men 
in the Country; and there appeared not the least 
Information of any Crime exhibited against them, yet 
they were put unto Intollerable Expences by these 
Greedy Oppressors, and the Benefit of an Habeas Corpus 
not allowed unto them. 

That packt and pickt Juries were commonly made 
use of, when under a pretended Form of Law, the 
Trouble of some Honest and Worthy Men was aimed 
at; and these also were hurried out of their own Coun- 
ties to be tried, when Juries for the Turn were not like 
to be found there. The Greatest Rigour being used 
still towards the soberest sort of People, whilst in the 
mean time the most horrid Enormities in the World, 
committed by Others, were overlook’d. 

That the publick Ministry of the Gospel, and all 
Schools of Learning, were discountenanced unto the 
Utmost. 

And several more such abominable things, too 
notorious to be denied, even by a Randolphian'! Impu- 
dence it self, are in that Book proved against that 
unhappy Government. Nor did that most Ancient Set 
of the Phenician Shepherds, who scrued the Govern- 
ment of Egypt into their Hands, as old Manethon? tells 
us, by their Villanies, during the Reigns of those 
Tyrants, make a Shepherd more of an Abomination 
to the Egyptians in all after Ages, than these Wolves 
under the Name of Shepherds have made the Remem- 


1 Edward Randolph, an English official in the colonies at the time, 
was cordially hated by Mather and by many of the New Englanders. 
* Egyptian historian, third century B. C. 


180 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


brance of their French Government! an Abomination to 
all Posterity among the New-Englanders: A Govern- 
ment, for which, now, Reader, as fast as thou wilt, get 
ready this Epitaph: 


Nulla quesita Scelere Potentia diuturna.* 


It was under the Resentments of these Things that 
Sir William Phips returned into England in the Year 
1688. In which Twice-Wonderful-Year such a Revolu- 
tion was wonderfully accomplished upon the whole 
Government of the English Nation, that New-England, 
which had been a Specimen of what the whole Nation 
was to look for, might justly hope for a share in the 
General Deliverance. Upon this Occasion Sir William 
offered his best Assistances unto that Eminent Person, 
who a little before this Revolution betook himself 
unto White-Hall, that he might there lay hold on all 
Opportunities to procure some Relief unto the Oppres- 
sions of that afflicted Country. But seeing the New- 
English Affairs in so able an Hand, he thought the best 
Stage of Action for him would now be New-England 
it self; and so with certain Instructions from none of 
the least considerable Persons at White-Hall, what 
Service to do for his Country, in the Spring of the Year 
1689. he hastened back unto it. Before he left London, 
a Messenger from the Abdicated King tender’d him the 
Government of New-England, if he would accept it: 
But as that excellent Attorney General, Sir William 
Jones, when it was proposed that the Plantations might 
be Governed without Assemblies, told the King, That 


1 The colonists fondly believed that Andros and his followers were 
secretly in league with the French against England. 
2 “No power achieved by wrongdoing is lasting.” 


WILLIAM PHIPS 181 


he could no more Grant a Commission to levy Money on 
his Subjects there, without their consent by an Assembly, 
than they could Discharge themselves from their Allegiance 
to the English Crown. So Sir William Phips thought it 
his Duty to refuse a Government without an Assembly, 
as a thing that was Treason in the very Essence of it; 
and instead of Petitioning the succeeding Princes, that 
his Patent for High Sheriff might be rendred Effectual, 
he joined in Petitions, that New-England might have 
its own old Patent so Restored, as to render ineffectual 
that, and all other Grants that might cut short any of 
its Ancient Priviledges. But when Sir William arrived 
at New-England, he found a new Face of things; for 
about an Hundred Indians in the Eastern Parts of the 
Country, had unaccountably begun a War upon the 
English in July, 1688. and though the Governour then 
in the Western Parts had immediate Advice of it, yet 
he not only delayed and neglected all that was necessary 
for the Publick Defence, but also when he at last re- 
turned, he manifested a most Furious Displeasure 
against those of the Council, and all others that had 
forwarded any one thing for the security of the In- 
habitants; while at the same time he dispatched some 
of his Creatures upon secret Errands unto Canada, 
and set at Liberty some of the most Murderous Indians 
which the English had seized upon. 

This Conduct of the Governour, which is in a Printed 
Remonstrance of some of the best Gentlemen in the 
Council complained of, did extreamly dissatishe the 
Suspicious People: Who were doubtless more extream 
in some of their Suspicions, than there was any real 
Occasion for: But the Govyernour at length raised an 
Army of a Thousand English to Conquer this Hundred 
Indians; and this Army, whereof some of the chief 


192 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Commanders were Papists, underwent the Fatigues 
of a long and a cold Winter, in the most Caucasean 
Regions of the Territory, till, without the killing of 
One Indian, there were more of the poor People killed, 
than they had Enemies there alive! This added not 
a little to the Dissatisfaction of the People, and it 
would much more have done so, if they had seen what 
the World had not yet seen of the Suggestions made 
by the Irish Catholicks unto the Late King, published 
in the Year 1691. in the Account of the State of the 
Protestants in Ireland, Licensed by the Earl of Notting- 
ham, whereof one Article runs in these Express Terms, 
That tf any of the Irish cannot have their Lands in Specie, 
but Money in Lieu, some of them may Transport them- 
selves into America, possibly near New-England, to 
check the growing Independants of that Country: Or if 
they had seen what was afterwards seen in a Letter 
from K. James to His Holiness, (as they stile his Foolish- 
ness) the Pope of Rome; that it was his full Purpose 
to have set up Roman-Catholick Religion in the English 
Plantations of America: Tho’ after all, there is Cause 
to think that there was more made of the Suspicions 
then flying like Wild-Fire about the Country, than 
a strong Charity would have Countenanced. When 
the People were under these Frights, they had got by 
the Edges a little Intimation of the then Prince of 
Orange’s glorious Undertaking to deliver England from 
the Feared Evils, which were already felt by New-Eng- 
land; but when the Person who brought over a Copy of 
the Prince’s Declaration was Imprisoned for bringing 
into the Country a Treasonable Paper, and the Govern- 
nour, by his Proclamation, required all Persons to 
use their utmost Endeavours to hinder the Landing of 
any whom the Prince might send thither, this put 


| 


WILLIAM PHIPS 183 


them almost out of Patience. And one thing that 
plunged the more Considerate Persons in the Territory 
into uneasie thoughts, was the Faulty Action of some 
Soldiers, who upon the Common Suspicions, deserted 
their Stations in the Army, and caused their Inehds 
to gather together here and there in little Bodies, to 
protect from the Demands of the Governour their 
poor Children and Brethren, whom they thought 
bound for a Bloody Sacrifice: And there were also 
belonging to the Rose-Frigot some that buzz’d sur- 
prizing Stories about Boston, of many Mischiefs to be 
thence expected. Wherefore, some of the Principal 
Gentlemen in Boston consulting what was to be done in 
this Extraordinary Juncture, They all agreed that they 
would, if it were possible, extinguish all Essays in the 
People towards an Insurrection, in daily Hopes of Orders 
from England for their Safety: But that if the Country 
People by any violent Motions push’d the Matter on 
so far, as to make a Revolution unavoidable, then to 
prevent the shedding of Blood by an ungoverned 
Mobile, some of the Gentlemen present should appear 
at the Head of the Action with a Declaration accordingly 
prepared. By the Eighteenth of April, 1689. Things 
were pushed on so far by the People, that certain Per- 
sons first Seized the Captain of the Frigot, and the 
Rumor thereof running like Lightning through Boston, 
the whole Town was immediately in Arms, with the 
most Unanimous Resolution perhaps that ever was 
known to have Inspir’d any People. They then seized 
those Wretched Men, who by their innumerable Ex- 
tortions and Abuses had made themselves the Objects 
of Universal Hatred; not giving over till the Governour 
himself was become their Prisoner: The whole Action 
being managed without the least Bloodshed or Plunder, 


184 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


and with as much Order as ever attended any Tumult, 
it may be, in the World. Thus did the New-Englanders 
assert their Title to the Common Rights of Englishmen; 
and except the Plantations are willing to Degenerate 
from the Temper of True Englishmen, or except the 
Revolution of the whole English Nation be condemned, 
their Action must so far be justified. On their late 
Oppressors, now under just Confinement, they took no 
other Satisfaction, but sent them over unto White-Hall 
for the Justice of the King and Parliament. And when 
the Day for the Anniversary Election, by their vacated 
Charter, drew near, they had many Debates into what 
Form they should cast the Government, which was till 
then Administred by a Committee for the Conservation 
of the Peace, composed of Gentlemen whose Hap it was 
to appear in the Head of the late Action; but their 
Debates Issued in this Conclusion; That the Gover- 
nour and Magistrates, which were in power before the 
late Usurpation, should Resume their Places, and apply 
themselves unto the Conservation of the Peace, and put 
forth what Acts of Government the Emergencies might 
make needful for them, and thus to wait for further 
Directions from the Authority of England. So was 
there Accomplished a Revolution which delivered Nevw- 
England from grievous Oppressions, and which was 
most graciously Accepted by the King and Queen, 
when it was Reported unto their Majesties. But 
there were new Matters for Sir William Phips, in a 
little while, now to think upon. 

$9. Behold the great things which were done by 
the Sovereign God, for a Person once as little in his 
own Eyes as in other Mens. All the Returns which 
he had hitherto made unto the God of his Mercies, were 
but Preliminaries to what remain to be related. It 


WILLIAM PHIPS 185 


has been the Custom in the Churches of New-England, 
still to expect from such Persons as they admitted 
unto constant Communion with them, that they do 
not only Publickly and Solemnly Declare their Consent 
unto the Covenant of Grace, and particularly to those 
Duties of it, wherein a Particular Church-State is more 
immediately concerned, but also first relate unto the 
Pastors, and by them unto the Brethren, the special 
Impressions which the Grace of God has made upon 
their Souls in bringing them to this Consent. By this 
Custom and Caution, though they cannot keep Hypo- 
crites from their Sacred Fellowship, yet they go as far 
as they can, to render and preserve themselves Churches 
of Saints, and they do further very much Ldifie one 
another. When Sir William Phips was now returned 
unto his own House, be began to bethink himself, like 
David, concerning the House of the God who had sur- 
rounded him with so many Favours in Ais own; and 
accordingly he applied himself unto the North Church 
in Boston,! that with his open Profession of his Hearty 
Subjection to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, he 
might have the Ordinances and the Priviledges of the 
Gospel added unto his other Enjoyments. One thing 
that quickned his Resolution to do what might be 
in this Matter expected from him, was a Passage which 
he heard from a Minister Preaching on the Title of the 
Fifty-First Psalm: To make a publick and an open 
Profession of Repentance, is a thing not misbecoming 
the greatest Man alive. It is an Honour to be found among 
the Repenting People of God, though they be 1n Circum- 
stances never so full of Suffering. A Famous Knight 
going with other Christians to be Crowned with Martyr- 


1The Second Church of Boston, of which Cotton and Increase 
Mather were ministers. 


186 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


dom, observed, That his Fellow-Sufferers were in Chains, 
from which the Sacrificers had, because of his Quality, 
excus'd him; whereupon he demanded, that he might 
wear Chains as well as they. For, said he, | would be a 
Knight of that Order too; There is among our selves 
a Repenting People of God, who by their Confessions 
at their Admissions to his Table, do signalize their being 
so; and thanks be to God that we have so little of 
Suffering in our Circumstances. But if any Man count 
himself grown too big to be a Knight of that Order, the 
Lord Jesus Christ himself will one Day be ashamed of 
that Man! Upon this Excitation, Sir William Phips 
made his Address unto a Congregational-Church, and 
he had therein one thing to propound unto himself, 
which few Persons of his Age, so well satisfied in Infant- 
Baptism as he was, have then to ask for. Indeed, in 
the Primitive Times, although the Lawfulness of Infant- 
Baptism, or the Precept and Pattern of Scripture for it, 
was never so much as once made a Question, yet we 
find Baptism was frequently delayed by Persons upon 
several superstitious and unreasonable Accounts, 
against which we have such Fathers as Gregory Naxian- 
zen, Gregory Nyssen, Basil, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and 
others, employing a variety of Argument. But Sir 
William Phips had hitherto delayed his Baptism, be- 
cause the Years of his Childhood were spent where 
there was no settled Minister, and therefore he was 
now not only willing to attain a good Satisfaction of 
his own Internal and Practical Christianity, before 
his receiving that Mark thereof, but he was also willing 
to receive it among those Christians that seemed most 
sensible of the Bonds which it laid them under. Offer- 
ing himself therefore, first unto the Baptism, and then 
unto the Supper of the Lord, he presented unto the 


WILLIAM PHIPS 187 


Pastor of the Church, with his own Hand-Writing, the 
following Instrument; which because of the Exemplary 
Devotion therein expressed, and the Remarkable History 
which it gives of several Occurrences in his Life, I will 
here faithfully Transcribe it, without adding so much 
as one Word unto it. 

‘The first of God’s making me sensible of my Sins, 
‘was in the Year 1674. by hearing your Father Preach 
‘concerning, The Day of Trouble near.’ It pleased 
‘Almighty God to smite me with a deep Sence of my 
‘miserable Condition, who had lived until then in the 
‘World, and had done nothing for God. I did then 
‘begin to think what I should do to be saved? And did 
‘bewail my Youthful Days, which I had spent in vain: 
‘T did think that I would begin to mind the things of 
‘God. Being then some time under your Father’s 
‘Ministry, much troubled with my Burden, but think- 
‘ing on that Scripture, Come unto me, you that are 
‘weary and heavy Laden, and I will give you Rest; I 
‘had some thoughts of drawing as near to the Com- 
‘munion of the Lord Jesus as I could; but the Ruins 
‘which the Indian Wars brought on my Affairs, and 
‘the Entanglements which my following the Sea laid 
‘upon me, hindred my pursuing the Welfare of my own 
‘Soul as I ought to have done. At length God was 
‘pleased to smile upon my Outward Concerns. ‘The 
‘various Providences, both Merciful and Afflictive, 
‘which attended me in my Travels, were sanctified unto 
‘me, to make me Acknowledge God in all my Ways. 
‘I have divers Times been in danger of my Life, and 
‘I have been brought to see that I owe my Life to him 
‘that has given a Life so often to me: I thank God, 
‘he hath brought me to see my self altogether unhappy, 

1 Increase Mather preached, and later printed, this sermon. 


188 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


‘without an Interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to 
‘close heartily with him, desiring him to Execute A/l 
‘his Offices on my Behalf. I have now, for some time, 
‘been under serious Resolutions, that I would avoid 
‘whatever I should know to be Displeasing unto God, 
‘and that I would Serve him all the Days of my Life. 
‘I believe no Man will Repent the Service of such a 
‘Master. I find my self unable to keep such Resolutions, 
‘but my serious Prayers are to the Most High, that 
‘he would enable me. God hath done so much for me, 
‘that I am sensible I owe my self to him; To him would 
‘I give my self, and all that he has given to me. I can’t 
‘express his Mercies to me. But as soon as ever God 
‘had smiled upon me with a Turn of my Affairs, I had 
‘laid my self under the VOWS of the Lord, That I 
‘would set my self to serve his People, and Churches here, 
‘unto the utmost of my Capacity. I have had great 
‘Offers made me in England; but the Churches of New- 
‘England were those which my Heart was most set 
‘upon. I knew, That if God had a People any where, it 
‘was here: And I Resolved to rise and fall with them; 
‘neglecting very great Advantages for my Worldly 
‘Interest, that I might come and enjoy the Ordinances 
‘of the Lord Jesus here. It has been my Trouble, that 
“since [ came Home I have made no more haste to get 
‘into the House of God, where I desire to be: Especially 
‘having heard so much about the £vil of that Omission. 
‘I can do little for God, but I desire to wait upon him 
‘in his Ordinances, and to live to his Honour and Glory. 
‘My being Born in a part of the Country, where I 
‘had not in my Infancy enjoyed the First Sacrament 
‘of the New-Testament, has been something of a Stum- 
‘bling-Block unto me. But though I have had Profers 
‘of Baptism elsewhere made unto me, I resolved rather 


WILLIAM PHIPS 189 


‘to defer it, until I might enjoy it in the Communion 
‘of these Churches; and I have had awful Impressions 
‘from those Words of the Lord Jesus in Maitth. 8. 38. 
‘Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my Words, 
‘of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed. When 
‘God had blessed me with something of the World, I 
‘had no Trouble so great as this, Lest it should not be 
‘in Mercy; and I trembled at nothing more than being 
“put off with a Portion here. ‘That I may make sure 
‘of better things, I now offer my self unto the Communion 
‘of this Church of the Lord JESUS. 

Accordingly on March 23. 1690.! after he had in 
the Congregation of North-Boston given himself up, 
first unto the Lord, and then unto his People, he was 
Baptized, and so received into the Communion of the 
Faithful there. 

§ 10. Several times, about, before and after this 
time, did I hear him express himself unto this purpose: 
I have no need at all to look after any further Advantages 
for my self in this World; I may sit still at Home, if I 
will, and enjoy my Ease for the rest of my Life; but I 
believe that I should offend God in my doing so: For I am 
now in the Prime of my Age and Strength, and, I 
thank God, I can undergo Hardship: He only knows 
how long I have to live; but I think ’tis my Duty to venture 
my Life in doing of good, before an useless Old Age 
comes upon me: Wherefore I will now expose my self 
while I am able, and as far as I am able, for the Service 
of my Country: I was Born for others, as well as my self. 
I say, many a time have I heard him so express him- 
self: And agreeable to this Generous Disposition and 
Resolution was all the rest of his Life. About this time 


1The Church Records, as copied by Mr. Robbins in his History 
of the Second Church, say March 8, 1690. 


190 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


New-England was miserably Briard in the Perplexities 
of an Indian War; and the Salvages, in the East part 
of the Country, issuing ovt from their inaccessible 
Swamps, had for many Months made their Cruel 
Depredations upon the poor English Planters, and 
surprized many of the Plantations on the Frontiers, 
into Ruin. The New-Englanders found, that while 
they continued only on the Defensive part, their People 
were thinned, and their Treasures wasted, without 
any hopes of seeing a Period put unto the Indian 
Tragedies; nor could an Army greater than Xerxes’s 
have easily come at the seemingly contemptible hand- 
ful of Tazwntest which made all this Disturbance; or, 
Tamerlain, the greatest Conqueror that ever the 
World saw, have made it a Business of no Trouble to 
have Conquered them: They found, that they were 
like to make no Weapons reach their Enswamped 
Adversaries, except Mr. Milton could have shown them 
how , 


To have pluckt up the Hills with all their Load, 
Rocks, Waters, Woods, and by their shaggy tops, 
Up-lifting, bore them in their Hands, therewith 
The Rebel Host to’ve over-whelm’d : 





So it was thought that the English Subjects, in these 
Regions of America, might very properly take this 
occasion to make an attempt upon the French, and by 
reducing them under the English Government, put 
an Eternal Period at once unto all their Troubles from 
the Frenchified Pagans. This was a Motion urged by 
Sir William Phips unto the General Court of the 
Massachuset-Colony; and he then made unto the Court 
1 A name for the Indians, because of their “tawny” skins. 


* Paraphrased from Paradise Lost, vi, 643-47. 


WILLIAM PHIPS IQI 


a brave Offer of his own Person and Estate, for the 
Service of the Publick in their present Extremity, as 
far as they should see Cause to make use thereof. 
Whereupon they made a First Essay against the French, 
by sending a Naval Force, with about Seven Hundred 
Men, under the Conduct of Sir William Phips, against 
L’Acady' and Nova Scotia; of which Action we shall 
give only this General and Summary Account; that 
Sir William Phips set Sail from Nantascot, April 28. 
1690. Arriving at Port-Royal, May 11. and had the 
Fort quickly Surrender’d into his Hands by the French 
Enemy, who despaired of holding out against him. He 
then took Possession of that Province for the English 
Crown, and having Demolished the Fort, and sent away 
the Garrison, Administred unto the Planters an Oath 
of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary, he left 
what Order he thought convenient for the Government 
of the Place, until further Order should be taken by 
the Governour and Council of the Massachuset-Colony, 
unto whom he returned May 30. with an acceptable 
Account of his Expedition, and accepted a Place among 
the Magistrates of that Colony, to which the Free-Men 
had chosen him at their Anniversary Election Two 
Days before. 

Thus the Country, once given by King James the 
First unto Sir William Alexander, was now by another 
Sir William recovered out of the Hands of the French, 
who had afterwards got the Possession of it; and there 
was added unto the English Empire, a ‘Territory, 
whereof no Man can Read Monsieur Denys’s Des- 
cription Geographique €% Historique des Costes de 
l Amerique Septentrionale,? but he must reckon the 


1 Acadie or L’Acadie. 
2 This book by Nicolas Denys, 1598-1688, was published in 1672. 


192 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Conquest of a Region so Improvable, for Lumber, for 
Fishing, for Mines, and for Furrs, a very considerable 
Service., But if a smaller Service has, e’er now, ever 
merited a Knighthood, Sir William was willing to Repeat 
his Merits by Actions of the greatest Service possible: 


Nil Actum credens, st quid superesset agendum.* 


§ 11. The Addition of this French Colony to the 
English Dominion, was no more than a /ittle step towards 
a greater Action, which was first in the Design of Sir 
William Phips, and which was, indeed, the greatest 
Action that ever the New-Englanders Attempted. 
There was a time when the Philistines had made some 
Inroads and Assaults from the Northward, upon the 
Skirts of Goshen, where the Israelites had a Residence, 
before their coming out of Egypt. The Israelites, and 
especially that Active Colony of the EF phraimites, 
were willing to Revenge these Injuries upon their 
wicked Neighbours; they presumed themselves Power- 
ful and Numerous enough to Encounter the Canaanites, 
even in their own Country; and they formed a brisk 
Expedition, but came off unhappy Losers in it; the 
Jewish Rabbins tell us, they lost no less than Eight 
Thousand Men. The Time was not yet come; there 
was more Haste than good Speed in the Attempt; they 
were not enough concerned for the Counsel and Presence 
of God in the Undertaking; they mainly propounded 
the Plunder to be got among a People, whose Trade 
was that wherewith Beasts enriched them; so the 
business miscarried. This History the Psalmist going 
to recite, says, I will utter dark Sayings of old. Now 
that what befel Sir William Phips, with his whole 


1 “Thinking nothing done, if anything remained to be done.” 


WILLIAM PHIPS 193 


Country of New-England, may not be almost forgotten 
among the dark Sayings of old, I will here give the true 
Report of a very memorable Matter. 

It was Canada that was the chief Source of New- 
England’s Miseries. There was the main Strength of 
the French; there the Indians were mostly supplied 
with Ammunition; thence Issued Parties of Men, who 
uniting with the Salvages, barbarously murdered many 
Innocent New-Englanders, without any Provocation 
on the New-English part, except this, that New-England 
had Proclaimed King William and Q. Mary, which 
they said were Usurpers; and as Cato could make no 
Speech in the Senate without that Conclusion, Delenda 
est Carthago;! so it was the general Conclusion of all 
that Argued sensibly about the safety of that Country, 
Canada must be Reduced. It then became the con- 
curring Resolution of all New-England, with New-York, 
to make a Vigorous Attack upon Canada at once, 
both by Sea and Land. 

And a Fleet was accordingly fitted out from Boston, 
under the Command of Sir William Phips, to fall upon 
Quebeque, the chief City of Canada. ‘They waited until 
August for some Stores of War from England, whither 
they had sent for that purpose early in the Spring; but 
none at last arriving, and the Season of the Year being 
so far spent, Sir William could not, without many 
Discourageinents upon his Mind, proceed in a Voyage, 
for which he found himself so poorly provided. How- 
ever, the Ships being taken up, and the Men on Board, 
his usual Courage would not permit him to Desist from 
the Enterprize; but he set Sail from Hull near Boston, 
August 9. 1690. with a Fleet of Thirty Two Ships and 
Tenders; whereof one, called the Six Friends, carrying 

1 “Carthage must be destroyed.” 


194 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Forty Four great Guns, and Two Hundred Men, was 
Admiral. Sir William dividing the Fleet into several 
Squadrons, whereof there was the Six Friends, Captain 
Gregory Sugars Commander, with Eleven more of the 
Admiral’s Squadron, of which one was also a Capital 
Ship, namely, The John and Thomas, Captain Thomas 
Carter Commander; of the Vice-Admirals, the Swan, 
Captain Thomas Gilbert Commander, with Nine more; 
of the Rear Admirals, the America-Merchant, Captain 
Joseph Eldridge Commander, with Nine more, and 
above Twenty Hundred Men on Board the whole 
Fleet: He so happily managed his Charge, that they 
every one of them Arrived safe at Anchor before Que- 
beck, although they had as dangerous, and almost 
untrodden a Path, to take Un-Puiloted, for the whole 
Voyage, as ever any Voyage was undertaken with. 
Some small French Prizes he took by the way, and set 
up English Colours upon the Coast, here and there, as 
he went along; and before the Month of August was 
out, he had spent several Days as far onward of his 
Voyage, as between the Island of Antecosta, and the 
Main. But when they entred the mighty River of 
Canada, such adverse Winds encountred the Fleet, 
that they were Three Weeks dispatching the way, 
which might otherwise have been gone in Three Days, 
and it was the Fifth of October, when a fresh Breeze 
coming up at Last, carried them along by the North 
Shore, up to the Isle of Orleans; and then haling South- 
erly, they passed by the East end of that Island, with 
the whole Fleet approaching the City of Quebeck. 
This loss of Time, which made it so late before the 
Fleet could get into the Country, where a cold and 
herce Winter was already very far advanced, gave no 
! Between Anticosti and the mainland. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 195 


very good Prospect of Success to the Expedition; but 
that which gave a much worse, was a most horrid 
Mismanagement, which had, the mean while, happened 
in the West. Fora Thousand English from New-York, 
and Albany, and Connecticut, with Fifteen Hundred 
Indians, were to have gone over-land in the West, 
and fallen upon Mount-Royal, while the Fleet was to 
Visit Quebeck in the East; and no Expedition could 
have been better laid than This, which was thus con- 
trived. But those English Companies in the West, 
marching as far as the great Lake that was to be passed, 
found their Canoos not provided, according to Expec- 
tation; and the Jndians also were [How? God knows, 
and will one Day Judge! Dissuaded from Joining with 
the English; and the Army met with such Discourage- 
ments, that they returned. 

Had this Western Army done but so much as con- 
tinued at the Lake, the Diversion thereby given to the 
French Quartered at Mount-Royal, would have rendered 
the Conquest of Quebeck easie and certain; but the 
Governour of Canada being Informed of the Retreat 
made by the Western-Army, had opportunity, by the 
cross Winds that kept back the Fleet, unhappily to 
get the whole Strength of all the Country into the City, 
before the Fleet could come up unto it. However, 
none of these Difficulties hindred Sir William Phips 
from sending on Shoar the following Summons, on 


Monday the Sixth of October. 


Sir William Phips, Knight, General and Commander 
in Chief, in and over Their Majesties Forces of 
New-England, by Sea and Land; 


yp 


196 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


To Count Frontenac, Lieutenant-General and Gover- 
nour for the French King at Canada; or in his 
Absence, to his Deputy, or Him, or Them, in Chief 
Command at Quebeck. 


Te War between the Two Crowns of England 


and France, doth not only sufficiently Warrant; 

but the Destruction made by the French and 
Indians, under your Command and Encouragement, upon 
the Persons and Estates of Their Majesties Subjects 
of New-England, without Provocation on their part, 
hath put them under the Necessity of this Expedition, 
for their own Security and Satisfaction. And although 
the Cruelties and Barbarities used against them, by the 
French and Indians, might, upon the present Opportunity, 
prompt unto a severe Revenge, yet being desirous to 
avoid all Inhumane and Unchristian-like Actions, and 
to prevent shedding of Blood as much as may be; 

I the aforesaid Sir William Phips, Knight, do hereby, 
in the Name, and in the Behalf of Their Most Excellent 
Majesties, William and Mary,-King and Queen of 
England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defenders of 
the Faith, and by Order of Their said Majesties Govern- 
ment of the Massachuset-Colony in . New-England, 
Demand a present Surrender of your Forts and Castles, 
undemolished, and the King’s and other Stores, unim- 
bezzelled, with a seasonable Delivery of all Captives; 
together with a Surrender of all your Persons and Estates 
to my Dispose: Upon the doing whereof you may expect 
Mercy from me, as a Christian, according to what shall 
be found for Their Majesties Service, and the Subjects 
Security. Which if you Refuse forthwith to do, I am come 
Provided, and am Resolved, by the help of God, in whom 
I trust, by Force of Arms, to Revenge all Wrongs and 


WILLIAM PHIPS 197 


Injuries offered, and bring you under Subjection to the 
Crown of England; and when too late, make you wish 
you had accepted of the Favour tendered. 


Your Answer Positive in an Hour, returned by your 
own Trumpet, with the Return of mine, 1s Required, 
upon the Peril that will ensue. 


The Summons being Delivered unto Count Frontenac, 
his Answer was; 


That Sir William Phips, and those with him, were 
Hereticks and Traitors to their King, and had taken up 
with that Usurper, the Prince of Orange, and had made a 
Revolution, which if it had not been made, New-England 
and the French had been all One; and that no other 
Answer was to be expected from him, but what should 


be from the Mouth of his Cannon. 


General Phips now saw that it must cost him Dry 
Blows,! and that he must Roar his Perswasions out 
of the Mouths of Great Guns, to make himself Master 
of a City which had certainly Surrender’d it self unto 
him, if he had arrived but a little sooner, and Sum- 
mon’d it before the coming down of Count Frontenac 
with all his Forces, to Command the oppressed People 
there, who would have been, many of them, glader of 
coming under the English Government. Wherefore 
on the Seventh of October, the English, that were for 
the Land-Service, went on Board their lesser Vessels, 
in order to Land; among which there was a Bark, 
wherein was Captain Ephraim Savage, with sixty Men, 
that ran a-ground upon the North-Shoar, near two 


1Strictly “dry blows” means “blows not involving bloodshed,”’ 


but the phrase was at times loosely used for “hard” or “severe 
blows.” 


198 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Miles from Quebeck, and could not get off, but lay in 
the same Distress that Sceva did, when the Britains | 
poured in their Numbers upon the Bark, wherein he, 
with a few more Soldiers of Cesar’s Army, were, by 
the disadvantage of the Tide, left Ashoar: The French, 
with Indians, that saw them lye there, came near, , 
and Fired thick upon them, and were bravely Answered; 

and when two or Three Hundred of the Enemy, at 
last planted a Field-Piece against the Bark, while the 
Wind blew so hard, that no help could be sent unto 
his Men, the General advanced so far, as to Level 
Two or Three great Guns, conveniently enough to 
make the Assailants Fly; and when the Flood came, 
the Bark happily got off, without the hurt of one Man 
aboard. But so violent was the Storm of Wind all 
this Day, that it was not possible for them to Land 
until the Eighth of October; when the English counting 
every Hour to be a Week until they were come to 
Battel, vigorously got Ashoar, designing to enter the 
East-end of the City. The Small-Pox had got into 
the Fleet, by which Distemper prevailing, the number 
of Effective Men which now went Ashoar, under the 
Command of Lieutenant General Walley, did not 
amount unto more than Fourteen Hundred; but Four 
Companies of these were drawn out as Forlorns,1 whom, 
on every side, the Enemy fired at; nevertheless, the 
English Rushing with a shout, at once upon them 
caused them to Run as fast as Legs could carry them: 
So that the whole English Army, expressing as much 
Resolution as was in Cesar’s Army, when they first 
landed on Britain, in spight of all opposition from the 
Inhabitants, marched on until it was dark, having 
first killed many of the French, with the loss of but 

1 J. ¢., bodies of troops dispatched to the front, vanguards. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 199 


Four Men of their own; and frighted about Seven or 
Eight Hundred more of the French from an Ambuscado, 
where they lay ready to fall upon them. But some 
thought, that by-staying in the Valley, they took the 
way never to get over the Hill:’ And yet for them to 
stay where they were, till the smaller Vessels came up 
the River before them, so far as by their Guns to 
secure the Passage of the Army in their getting over, 
was what the Council of War had ordered. But the 
Violence of the Weather, with the General’s being 
sooner plunged into the heat of Action than was in- 
tended, hindred the smaller Vessels from attending 
that Order. And this Evening a French Deserter 
coming to them, assured them, that Nine Hundred 
Men were on their March from Quebeck to meet them, 
already passed a little Rivulet that lay at the end of 
the City, but seeing them Land so suddenly, and so 
valiantly run down those that first Encounted them, 
they had Retreated: Nevertheless, That Count Fron- 
tenac was come down to Quebeck with no fewer than 
Thirty Hundred Men to defend the City, having left 
but Fifty Souldiers to defend Mount Real, because 
they had understood, that the English Army on that 
side, were gone back to Albany. Notwithstanding 
this dis-spiriting Information, the common Souldiers 
did with much vehemency Beg and Pray, that they 
might be led on; professing, that they had rather lose 
their Lives on the Spot, than fail of taking the City; 
but the more wary Commanders considered how rash 
a thing it would be, for about Fourteen Hundred Raw 
Men, tired with a long Voyage, to assault more than 
Twice as many Expert Souldiers, who were Galli in 

1 There is a proverb, “He that stays in the valley shall never get 
over the hill.” 


200 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


suo sterquilinio,! or Cocks Crowing on their own Dunghil. 
They were, in truth, now gotten into the grievous 
Case which Livy describes, when he says, [bi grave est 
Bellum gerere, ubt non consistendt aut procedendt locus; 
quocunque aspexeris Hostilia sunt omnia; ? look on one 
side or t’other, all was full of Hostile Difficulties. And 
indeed, whatever Popular Clamour has been made 
against any of the Commanders, it is apparent that 
they acted considerately, in making a Pause upon 
what was before them; and they did a greater kindness 
to their Souldiers than they have since been thanked 
for. But in this time, General Phips and his Men of 
War, with their Canvas Wings, flew close up unto the 
West-end of the City, and there he behaved himself 
with the greatest Bravery imaginable; nor did the 
other Men of War forbear to follow his brave Example: 
Who never discovered himself more in his Element, 
than when (as the Poet expresseth it,) 


The Slaughter-Breathing Brass grew hot, and spoke 
In Flames of Lightning, and in Clouds of Smoke: 


He lay within Pistol-shot of the Enemies Cannon, 
and beat them from thence, and very much batter’d 
the Town, having his own Ship shot through in almost 
an Hundred Places with Four and Twenty Pounders, 
and yet but one Man was killed, and only Two Mortally 
Wounded Aboard hin, in this hot Engagement, which 
continued the greatest part of that Night, and several 
Hours of the Day ensuing. But wondring that he 
saw no Signal of any Effective Action Ashoar at the 


1 Cotton Mather puns here on the meaning of “ gallus,”’cock, and 
“sallus,’ Frenchman, Gaul. 

2 “Tt is difficult to wage war, when there is no chance to halt or 
to proceed, and, wherever one looks, everything is hostile.” 


WILLIAM PHIPS 201 


East-end of the City, he sent that he might know the 
Condition of the Army there; and received Answer, 
That several of the Men were so frozen in their Hands 
and Feet, as to be disabled from Service, and others 
were apace falling sick of the Small-Pox. Whereupon 
he order’'d them on Board immediately to refresh them- 
selves, and he intended then to have renew’d his Attack 
upon the City, in the Method of Landing his Men in 
the Face of it, under the shelter of his great Guns; 
having to that purpose provided also a considerable 
number of well-shaped Wheel-Barrows, each of them 
carrying Iwo Petarraro’s! apiece, to March before the 
Men, and make the Enemy Fly, with as much Con- 
tempt as overwhelmed the Philistines, when undone by 
Foxes with Torches in their Tails; (remembred in an 
Anniversary Diversion every 4pril among the Ancient 
Romans, taught by the Phenictians.) 

While the Measures to be further taken were debat- 
ing, there was made an Exchange of Prisoners, the 
English having taken several of the French in divers 
Actions, and the French having in their Hands divers 
of the English, whom the Jndians had brought Captives 
unto them. The Army now on Board continued still 
Resolute and Courageous, and on fire for the Conquest 
of Quebeck; or if they had missed of doing it by Storm, 
they knew that they might, by possessing themselves 
of the Isle of Orleans, in a little while have starved them 
out. Incredible Damage they might indeed have done 
to the Enemy before they Embarked, but they were 
willing to preserve the more undefensible Parts of the 
Country in such a Condition, as might more sensibly 


1Petarraro probably means “peterero,” or “pedrero,” an old 
name for a very short piece of chambered ordnance—a small gun 
or cannon, 


202 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Encourage the Submission of the Inhabitants unto 
the Crown of England, whose Protection was desired by 
so many of them. And still they were loth to play for 
any lesser Game than the immediate Surrender of 
Quebeck it self. But e’re a full Council of War could 
conclude the next Steps to be taken, a violent Storm 
arose that separated the Fleet, and the Snow and the 
Cold became so extream, that they could not continue 
in those Quarters any longer. 

Thus, by an evident Hand of Heaven, sending one 
unavoidable Disaster after another, as well-formed 
an Enterprize, as perhaps was ever made by the New- 
Englanders, most unhappily miscarried; and General 
Phips underwent a very mortifying Disappointment 
of a Design, which his Mind was, as much as ever any, 
set upon. He arrived Nov. 19. at Boston, where, al- 
though he found himself, as well as the Publick, thrown 
into very uneasie Circumstances, yet he had this to 
Comfort him, that neither his Courage nor his Conduct 
could reasonably have been Taxed; nor could it be 
said that any Man could have done more than he did, 
under so many Embarassments of his Business, as he 
was to Fight withal. He also relieved the uneasiness 
of his Mind, by considering, that his Voyage to Canada, 
diverted from his Country an Horrible Tempest from 
an Army of Boss-Lopers,! which had prepar’d them- 
selves, as ’tis afirmed, that Winter, to fall upon the 


1 This word seems to be a Dutch form, translating “ coureurs de 
bois,” which probably was used by the settlers in New York and 
from them came into speech elsewhere in the colonies. In a con- 
temporary account of Phips’s expedition against Quebec (S. A. Green, 
Two Narratives of the Expedition Against Quebec, Cambridge, 1902, 
39n.) we read “Bosslopers (or mongrel french begat on Indian 
women), but, however the word came to be understood, it quite 
clearly originally was simply a translation of “coureurs de bois.”’ 


WILLIAM PHIPS 203 


New-English Colonies, and by falling on them, would 
probably have laid no little part of the Country deso- 
late. And he further considered, that in this Matter, 
like Israel engaging against Benjamin, it may be, we 
saw yet but the beginning of the matter: And that 
the way to Canada now being learnt, the Foundation 
of a Victory over it might be laid in what had been 
already done. Unto this purpose likewise, he was 
heard sometimes applying the Remarkable Story re- 
ported by Bradwardine. 

“There was an Hermit, who being vexed with Blas- 
‘yhemous Injections about the Justice and Wisdom of 
‘Divine Providence, an Angel in Humane Shape in- 
‘vited him to Travel with him, That he might see the 
‘hidden Judgments of God. Lodging all Night at the 
‘House of a Man who kindly entertain’d them, the 
‘Angel took away a valuable Cup from their Host, 
‘at their going away in the Morning, and bestowed 
‘this Cup upon a very wicked Man, with whom they 
‘lodged the Night ensuing. The Third Night they 
‘were most lovingly Treated at the House of a very 
‘Godly Man, from whom, when they went in the 
‘Morning, the Angel meeting a Servant of his, threw 
‘him over the Bridge into the Water, where he was 
‘drowned. And the Fourth, being in like manner most 
‘courteously Treated at the House of a very Godly 
‘Man, the Angel before Morning did unaccountably 
‘kill his only Child. The Companion of the Journey 
‘being wonderfully offended at these things, would 
‘have left his Guardian: But the Angel then thus 
‘Addressed him, Understand now the Secret Judgments 
‘of God! The first Man that entertained us, did tnordi- 
‘nately affect that Cup which I took from him, twas for 
‘the Advantage of his Interiour that I took 1t away, and 


204 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


‘IT gave it unto the impious Man, as the present Reward 
‘of his good Works, which 1s all the Reward that he 1s 
‘like to have. As for our Third Host, the Servant which 
‘IT slew had formed a bloody Design to have slain his 
‘Master, but now, you see, I have saved the Life of the 
‘Master, and prevented something of growth unto the 
‘Eternal Punishment of the Murderer. As for our 
‘Fourth Host, before his Child was Born unto him, he 
‘was a very liberal and bountiful Person, and he did 
‘abundance of good with his Estate; but when he saw he 
‘was like to leave such an Heir, he grew Covetous; where- 
‘fore the Soul of the Infant 1s Translated into Paradise, 
‘but the occasion of Sin 15, you see, mercifully taken 
‘away from the Parent. 

Thus General Phips, though he had been used unto 
Diving in his time, would say, That the things which had 
befallen him in this Expedition, were too deep to be Dived 
into! 

§ 12. From the time that General Pen made his 
Attempt upon Hispaniola, with an Army that, like 
the New-English Forces against Canada, miscarried 
after an Expectation of having little to do but to 
Possess and Plunder; even to this Day, the general 
Disaster which hath attended almost every Attempt 
of the European Colonies in America, to make any 
considerable Encroachments upon their Neighbours, 
is a Matter of some close Reflection. But of the Dis- 
aster which now befel poor New-England in particular, 
every one will easily conclude none of the least Conse- 
quences to have been the Extream Debts which that 
Country was now plunged into; there being Forty 
Thousand Pounds, more or less, now to be paid, and 
not a Penny in the Treasury to pay it withal. In this 
Extremity they presently found out an Expedient, 


WILLIAM PHIPS 205 


which may serve as an Example for any People in other 
Parts of the World, whose Distresses may call for a 
sudden supply of Money to carry them through any 
Important Expedition. The General Assembly first 
pass’'d an Act for the Levying of such a Sum of Money 
as was wanted, within such a Term of time as was 
judged convenient; and this Act was a Fund, on which 
the Credit of such a Sum should be rendered passable 
among the People. Hereupon there was appointed 
an able and faithful Committee of Gentlemen, who 
Printed, from Copper-Plates, a just Number of Bills, 
and Florished, Indented, and Contrived them in such 
a manner, as to make it impossible to Counterfeit 
any of them, without a speedy Discovery of the Counter- 
feit: Besides which, they were all Signed by the Hands 
of Three belonging to that Committee. These Bulls 
being of several Sums, from Two Shillings, to Ten 
Pounds, did confess the Massachuset-Colony to be 
Endebted unto the Person, in whose Hands they were, 
the Sums therein expressed; and Provision was made, 
that if any Particular Bills were Irrecoverable Lost, or 
Torn, or Worn by the Owners, they might be Recruited 
without any Damage to the whole in general. The 
Publick Debts to the Sailors and Soldiers, now upon 
the point of Mutiny, (for, Arma Tenenti, Omnia dat, 
qui Justa negat!1) were in these Bills paid immediately: 
But that further Credit might be given thereunto, it 
was Ordered that they should be accepted by the Treas- 
urer, and all Officers that were Subordinate unto him, 
in all Publick Payments, at Five per Cent. more than 
the Value expressed in them. The People knowing 
that the Tax-Act would, in the space of Two Years 
at least, fetch into the Treasury as much as all the 
1 “He who denies what is just, gives all to one who bears arms.” 


206 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Bills of Credit, thence emitted, would amount unto, 
were willing to be furnished with Bills, wherein ‘twas 
their Advantage to pay their Taxes, rather than in 
any other Specie; and so the Sazlors and Soldiers put 
off their Bills, instead of Money, to those with whom 
they had any Dealings, and they Circulated through 
all the Hands in the Colony pretty Comfortably. Had 
the Government been so settled, that there had not 
been any doubt of any Obstruction, or Diversion to be 
given to the Prosecution of the Tax-Act, by a Total 
Change of their Affairs then depending at Whitehall, 
’tis very certain, that the Bills of Credit had been better 
than so much ready Silver; yea, the Invention had been 
of more use to the New-Englanders, than if all their 
Copper Mines had been opened, or the Mountains of 
Peru had been removed into these Parts of America. 
The Massachuset Bills of Credit had been like the Bank 
Bills of Venice, where though there were not, perhaps, 
a Ducat of Money in the Bank, yet the Bills were 
esteemed more than Twenty per Cent. better than 
Money, among the Body of the People, in all their 
Dealings. But many People being afraid, that the 
Government would in half a Year be so overturned, 
as to Convert their Bills of Credit altogether into Wast 
Paper, the Credit of them was thereby very much im- 
paired; and they, who first received them, could make 
them yield little more than Fourteen or Sixteen Shillings 
in the Pound; from whence there arose those Idle 
Suspicions in the Heads of many more Ignorant and 
Unthinking Folks concerning the use thereof, which, 
to the Incredible Detriment of the Province, are not 
wholly laid aside unto this Day. However, this Method 
of paying the Publick Debts, did no less than save the 
Publick from a perfect Ruin: And e’re many Months 


WILLIAM PHIPS 207 


were expired, the Governour and Council had the 
Pleasure of seeing the Treasurer burn before their 
Eyes many a [Thousand Pounds Worth of the Bills, 
which had passed about until they were again returned 
unto the Treasury; but before their being returned, 
had happily and honestly, without a Farthing of 
Silver Coin, discharged the Debts, for which they were 
intended. But that which helped these Bills unto much 
of their Credit, was the Generous Offer of many Worthy 
Men in Boston, to run the Risque of selling their Goods 
reasonably for them: And of these, I think I may 
say, that General Phips was in some sort the Leader; 
who at the very beginning, meerly to Recommend 
the Credit of the Bills unto other Persons, chearfully 
laid down a considerable quantity of ready Money for 
an equivalent parcel of them. And thus in a little 
time the Country waded through the Terrible Debts 
which it was fallen into: In this, though unhappy 
enough, yet not so unhappy as in the Loss of Men, 
by which the Country was at the same time consumed. 
*Tis true, there was very Jittle Blood spilt in the Attack 
made upon Quebeck; and there was a Great Hand of 
Heaven seen in it. The Churches, upon the Call of 
the Government, not only observed a General Fast 
through the Colony, for the Welfare of the Army sent 
unto Quebeck, but also kept the Wheel of Prayer in a 
Continual Motion, by Repeated and Successive Agree- 
ments, for Days of Prayer with Fasting, in their several 
Vicinities. On these Days the Ferventest Prayers 
were sent up to the God of Armies, for the Safety and 
Success of the New-English Army gone to Canada; 
and though I never understood that any of the Faithful 
did in their Prayers arise to any assurance that the 
Expedition should prosper in all respects, yet they 


208 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


sometimes in their Devotions on these Occasions, 
uttered their Perswasion, that Almighty God had heard 
them in this thing, that the English Army should not 
fall by the Hands of the French Enemy. Now they were 
marvellously delivered from doing so; though the 
Enemy had such unexpected Advantages over them, 
yea, and though the horrid Winter was come on so far, 
that it is a Wonder the English Fleet, then Riding in 
the River of Canada, fared any better than the Army 
which a while since besieged Poland, wherein, of Seventy 
Thousand Invaders, no less than Forty Thousand 
suddenly perished by the severity of the Cold, albeit 
it were but the Month of November with them. Never- 
theless, a kind of Camp-Fever, as well as the Small-Pox, 
got into the Fleet, whereby some Hundreds came 
short of Home. And besides this Calamity, it was 
also to be lamented, that although the most of the 
Fleet arrived safe at New-England, whereof some Vessels 
indeed were driven off by Cross-Winds as far as the 
West-Indies, before such Arrival; yet there were [hree 
or Four Vessels which totally miscarried: One was 
never heard of, a Second was Wreck’d, but most of 
the Men were saved by another in Company; a third 
was Wreck’d so, that all the Men were either starvd, 
or drown’d, or slain by the /ndians, except one, which 
a long while after was by means of the French restored: 
And a fourth met with Accidents, which, it may be, 
my Reader will by and by pronounce not unworthy 
to have been Related. 

A Brigantine, whereof Captain John Rainsford was 
Commander, having about Threescore Men aboard, 
was 1n a very stormy Night, Octob. 28. 1690. stranded 
upon the desolate and hideous Island of Antecosta, 
an Island in the mouth of the Mighty River of Canada; 


WILLIAM PHIPS 209 


but through the singular Mercy of God unto them, 
the Vessel did not, immediately, stave to pieces, which 
if it had happened, they must have, one way or another, 
quickly perished. There they lay for divers Days, 
under abundance of bitter Weather, trying and hoping 
to get off their Vessel; and they solemnly set apart 
one Day for Prayer with Fasting, to obtain the Smiles 
of Heaven upon them in the midst of their Distresses; 
and this especially, That if they must go Ashoar, they 
might not, by any stress of Storm, lose the Provisions 
which they were to carry with them. They were at 
last convinced, that they must continue no longer on 
Board, and therefore, by the Seventh of November, 
they applied themselves, all Hands, to get their Pro- 
visions Ashoar upon the dismal Island, where they had 
nothing but a sad and cold Winter before them; which 
being accomplished, their Vessel overset so, as to take 
away from them all expectation of getting off the 
Island in it. Here they now built themselves Nine 
small Chimney-less things that they called Houses; 
to this purpose employing such Boards and Planks 
as they could get from their shattered Vessel, with the 
help of Trees, whereof that squalid Wilderness had 
enough to serve them; and they built a particular 
Store-House, wherein they carefully Lodg’d and Lock’d 
the poor quantity of Provisions, which though scarce 
enough to serve a very abstemious Company for one 
Month, must now be so stinted, as to hold out Six or 
Seven; and the Allowance agreed among them could be 
no better than for One Man, Two Biskets, half a pound 
of Pork, half a pound of Flower, one Pint and a quarter 
of Pease, and two Salt Fishes per Week. ‘This little 
Handful of Men were now a sort of Commonwealth, 
extraordinarily and miserably separated from all the 


210 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


rest of Mankind; (but I believe, they thought little 
enough of an Utopia: Wherefore they consulted and 
concluded such Laws among themselves, as they judged 
necessary to their subsistence, in the doleful Condition 
whereinto the Providence of God had cast them; now 


Penitus toto divisos Orbe.+ 





They set up Good Orders, as well as they could, among 
themselves; and» besides their daily Devotions, they 
Observed the Lord’s Days, with more solemn Exercises 
of Religion. 

But it was not long before they began to feel the 
more mortal effects of the Straits whereinto they had 
been Reduced: Their short Commons, their Drink of 
Snow-Water, their Hard, and Wet, and Smoaky Lodg- 
ings, and their Grievous Despair of Mind, overwhelmed 
some of them at such a rate, and so ham-string’d them, 
that sooner than be at the pains to go abroad, and 
cut their one Fuel, they would lye after a Sottish 
manner in the Cold; these things quickly brought 
Sicknesses among them. The first of their Number who 
Died was their Doctor, on the 20th of December; and 
then they dropt away, one after another, till between 
Thirty and Forty of the Sixty were buried by their 
disconsolate Friends, whereof every one look’d still to 
be the next that should lay his Bones in that Forsaken 
Region. ‘These poor Men did therefore, on Monday 
the Twenty Seventh of January, keep a Sacred Fast 
(as they did, in some sort, a Civil one, every Day, all 
this while) to beseech of Almighty God, that his Anger 
might be turned from them, that he would not go on 
to cut them off in his Anger, that the Extremity of the 

1“Utterly separated from all the world.” 


WILLIAM PHIPS 211 


Season might be mitigated, and that they might be 
prospered in some Essay to get Relief as the Spring 
should Advance upon them; and they took Notice 
that God gave them a Gracious Answer to every one 
of these Petitions. 

But while the Hand of God was killing so many of 
this little Nation (and yet uncapable to become a 
Nation, for it was, Res unius 4tatis, populus virorum!') 
they apprehended, that they must have been under a 
most uncomfortable Necessity to kill One of their 
Company. 

Whatever Penalties they Enacted for other Crimes, 
there was One, for which, like that of Parricide among 
the Antients, they would have promised themselves, 
that there should not have been Occasion for any 
Punishments; and that was, the Crime of Stealing 
from the Common-Stock of their Provisions. Never- 
theless they found their Store-House divers times broken 
open, and their Provisions therefrom Stolen by divers 
unnatural Children of the Leviathan,” while it was not 
possible for them to preserve their feeble Store-House 
from the Stone-Waill-breaking Madness of these un- 
reasonable Creatures. This Trade of Stealing, if it 
had not been stopp’d by some exemplary Severity, they 
must in a little while, by Zot or Force, have come to 
have Canibally devoured one another; for there was 
nothing to be done, either at Fishing, or Fowling, or 
Hunting, upon that Rueful Island, in the depth of a 
Frozen Winter; and though they sent as far as they 
could upon Discovery, they could not find on the Island 
any Living thing in the World, besides themselves. 
Wherefore, though by an Act they made Stealing to 


1“ A republic of one age and of men.” 
2 The Leviathan, in obsolete usage, meant Satan. 


or. MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


be so Criminal, that several did Run the Gantlet for 
it, yet they were not far from being driven, after all, 
to make one Degree and Instance of it Capital. There 
was a wicked Jrishman among them, who had such a 
Voracious Devil in him, that after divers Burglaries 
upon the Store-House, committed by him, at last he 
Stole, and Eat with such a Pamphagous! Fury, as to 
Cram himself with no less than Eighteen Biskets at one 
Stolen Meal, and he was fain to have his Belly strok’d 
and bath’d before the Fire, lest he should otherwise 
have burst. This Amazing, and indeed Murderous 
Villany of the Jrishman, brought them all to their 
Wits Ends, how to defend themselves from the Ruin 
therein threatned unto them; and whatever Methods 
were proposed, it was feared that there could be no 
stop given to his Furacious Exorbitancies any way 
but One; he could not be past Stealing, unless he were 
past Hating too. Some think therefore they might 
have Sentenced the Wretch to Die, and after they had 
been at pains, upon Christian and Spiritual Accounts, 
to prepare him for it, have Executed the Sentence, by 
Shooting him to Death: Concluding Matters come to 
that pass, that if they had not Shot him, he must have 
Starved them unavoidably. Such an Action, if it were 
done, will doubtless meet with no harder a Censure, 
than that of the Seven Englishmen, who being in a 
Boat carried off to Sea from St. Christopher's, with 
but one Days Provision aboard for Seventeen, Singled 
out some of their Number by Lot, and Slew them, and 
Eat them; for which, when they were afterwards 
accused of Murder, the Court, in consideration of 
the inevitable Necessity, acquitted them. Truly the 
inevitable Necessity of Starving, without such an Action, 
17, ¢., all-devouring. 





WILLIAM PHIPS 213 


sufficiently grievous to them all, will very much plead 
for what was done (whatever it were!) by these poor 
Antecostians. And Starved indeed they must have 
been, for all this, if they had not Contrived and Per- 
formed a very desperate Adventure, which now remains 
to be Related. There was a very diminutive kind of 
Boat belonging to their Brigantine, which they recov- 
ered out of the Wreck, and cutting this Boat in Two, 
they made a shift, with certain odd Materials preserved 
among them, to lengthen‘it so far, that they could 
therein form a little Cuddy, where Two or Three Men 
might be stowed, and they set up a /ittle Mast, whereto 
they fastened a little Sail, and accommodated it with 
some other little Circumstances, according to their 
present poor Capacity. 

On the Twenty Fifth of March, Five of the Company 
Shipped themselves upon this Doughty Fly-Boaz, 
intending, if it were possible, to carry unto Boston the 
Tidings of their woful Plight upon Antecosta, and by 
help from their Friends there, to return with seasonable 
Succours for the rest. They had not Sail’d long before 


they were Hemm’d in by prodigious Cakes of Ice, 
_whereby their Boat sometimes was horribly wounded, 


and it was a Miracle that it was not Crush’d into a 


Thousand Pieces, if indeed a Thousand Pieces could 


have been Splintred out of so minute a Cock-Boat. 


They kept labouring, and fearfully Weather-beaten, 
- among enormous Rands! of Ice, which would ever now 
and then rub formidably upon them, and were enough 
to have broken the Ribs of the strongest Frigot that 


ever cut the Seas; and yet the signal Hand of Heaven 


so preserved this petty Boat, that by the Eleventh of 
April they had got a quarter of their way, and came to 


1 Pieces. 


214 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


an Anchor under Cape St. Lawrence, having seen 
Land but once before, and that about seven Leagues 
off, ever since their first setting out; and yet having 
seen the open and Ocean Sea not so much as once in all 
this while, for the Ice that still encompassed them. 
For their support in this Time, the little Provisions 
they brought with them would not have kept them 
alive; only they killed Seale upon the Ice, and they 
melted the upper part of the Ice for Drink; but fierce, 
wild, ugly Sea-Horses,! would often so approach them 
upon the Ice, that the fear of being devoured by them 
was not the least of their Exercises. The Day following 
they weig hed * Anchor betimes in the Morning but the 
Norwest Winds persecuted them, with the raised and 
raging Waves of the Sea, which almost continually 
poured into them; and Monstrous Islands of Ice, that 
seemed almost as big as Antecosta it self, would ever 
now and then come athwart them. In such a Sea 
they lived by the special assistance of God, until, by 
the Thirteenth of April, they got into an Island of 
Land, where they made a Fire, and killed some Fowl, 
and some Seale, and found some Goose-Eggs, and sup- 
plied themselves with what Billets of Wood were nec- 
essary and carriageable for them; and there they stayed 
until the Seventeenth. Here their Boat lying near a 
Rock, a great Sea hove it upon the Rock, so that it 
was upon the very point of oversetting, which if it had, 
she had been utterly disabled for any further Service, 
and they must have called that Harbour by the Name, 
which, I think, one a little more Northward bears, 
The Cape without Hope. There they must have ended 
their weary Days! But here the good Hand of God 


1 Walruses. 


> Weighed. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 205 


again interposed for them; they got her off; and though 
they lost their Compass in this Hurry, they sufficiently 
Repaired another defective one that they had aboard. 
Sailing from thence, by the Twenty-fourth of 4pril, 
they made Cape Brittoon;' when a thick Fog threw 
them into a new Perplexity, until they were safely 
gotten into the Bay of IJslands,? where they again 
wooded, and watred, and killed a few Fowl, and catched 
some Fish, and began to reckon themselves as good as 
half way home. They reached Cape Sables* by the Third 
of May, but by the Fifth all their Provision was again 
spent, and they were out of sight of Land; nor had they 
any prospect of catching any thing that lives in the 
Atlantick: which while they were lamenting one unto 
another, a stout Halibut comes up to the top of the 
Water, by their side; whereupon they threw out the 
Fishing-Line, and the Fish took the Hook; but he 
proved so heavy, that it required the help of several 
Hands to hale him in, and a thankful Supper they made 
on’t. By the Seventh of May seeing no Land, but 
having once more spent all their Provision, they were 
grown almost wholly hopeless of Deliverance, but then 
a Fishing Shallop of Cape Ann came up with them, 
Fifteen Leagues to the Eastward of that Cape. And 
yet before they got in, they had so Tempestuous a 
Night, that they much feared perishing upon the Rocks 
after all: But God carried them into Boston Harbour 
the Ninth of May, unto the great surprize of their 
Friends that were in Mourning for them: And there 
furnishing themselves with a Vessel fit for their Under- 
taking, they took a Course in a few Weeks more to 


1 Breton. 
2 Newfoundland. 
3 Cape Sable. 


216 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


fetch home their Brethren that they left behind them 
at Antecosta. 

But it is now time for us to return unto Sir William! 

$13. All this while C4NADA was as much written 
upon Sir William’s Heart, as CALLICE,' they said 
once, was upon Queen Mary’s.?, He needed not one to 
have been his daily Monitor about Canada: It lay down 
with him, it rose up with him, it engrossed almost all 
his thoughts; he thought the subduing of Canada to 
be the greatest Service that could be done for New- 
England, or for the Crown of England, in America. 
In pursuance whereof, after he had been but a few 
Weeks at Home, he took another Voyage for England, 
in the very depth of Winter, when Sailing was now 
dangerous; conflicting with all the Difficulties of a 
tedious and a terrible Passage, in a very little Vesscl, 
which indeed was like enough to have perished, if it 
had not been for the help of his generous Hand aboard, 
and his Fortunes 1n the bottom. 

Arriving per tot Discrimina,®? at Bristol, he 
hastned up to London; and made his Applications to 
their Majesties, and the Principal Ministers of State, 
for assistance to renew an Expedition against Canada, 
concluding his Representation to the King with such 
Words as these: 

‘If Your Majesty shall graciously please to Com- 
‘mission and Assist me, I am ready to venture my Life 
‘again in your Service. And I doubt not, but by the 
‘Blessing of God, Canada may be added unto the rest 
‘of your Dominions, which will (all Circumstances 
‘considered) be of more Advantage to the Crown of 
‘England, than all the Territories in the West-Indies are. 

1 Calais. * Mary I of England. 


3 “Through so many dangers.” 





WILLIAM PHIPS 217, 


The Reasons here subjoined, are humbly Offered unio 
Your Majesties Consideration. 


‘First, The Success of this Design will greatly add 
‘to the Glory and Interest of the English Crown and 
‘Nation; by the Addition of the Bever-Trade, and 
‘Securing the Hudson’s Bay Company, some of whose 
‘Factories have lately fallen into the Hands of the 
‘French; and increase of English Shipping and Seamen, 
‘by gaining the Fishery of Newfoundland; and by 
“consequence diminish the number of French Seamen, 
‘and cut off a great Revenue from the French Crown. 

‘Secondly, The Cause of the English in New-England, 
‘their failing in the late Attempt upon Canada, was 
‘their waiting for a Supply of Ammunition from Eng- 
‘land until August; their long Passage up that River; 
‘the Cold Season coming on, and the Small-Pox and 
‘Fevers being in the Army and Fleet, so that they could 
‘not stay Fourteen Days longer; in which time probably 
‘they might have taken Quebeck; yet, if a few Frigots 
‘be speedily sent, they doubt not of an happy Success; 
‘the Strength of the French being small, and the Planters 
‘desirous to be under the English Government. 

‘Thirdly, The Jesuites endeavour to seduce the 
“Maqua’s, and other Indians (as is by them affirmed) 
“suggesting the Greatness of King Lewis, and the 
‘Inability of King William, to do any thing against 
‘the French in those Parts, thereby to engage them in 
‘their Interests: In which, if they should succeed, not 
‘only New-England, but all our American Plantations, 
“would be endangered by the great increase of Shipping, 
‘for the French (built in New-England at easie rates) 
‘to the Infinite Dishonour and Prejudice of the English 
‘Nation. 


218 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


But now, for the Success of these Applications, I 
must entreat the Patience of my Reader to wait until 
we have gone through a little more of our History. 


§14. The Reverend INCREASE MATHER be- 
holding his Country of New-England in a very Deplor- 
able Condition, under a Governour that acted by an 
Illegal, Arbitrary, Treasonable Commission, and In- 
vaded Liberty and Property after such a manner, as 
that no Man could say any thing was his own, he did, 
with the Encouragement of the Principal Gentlemen 
in the Country, but not without much Trouble and 
Hazard unto his own Person, go over to Whitehall in 
the Summer of the Year 1688. and wait upon King 
James, with a full Representation of their Muiseries. 
That King did give him Liberty of Access unto him, 
whenever he desired it, and with many Good Words 
promised him to relieve the Oppressed People in many 
Instances that were proposed: But when the Revolution 
had brought the Prince and Princess of Orange to the - 
Throne, Mr. Mather having the Honour divers times 
to wait upon the King, he still prayed for no less a 
Favour to New-England, than the full Restoration of 
their Charter-Priviledges: And Sir William Phips hap- 
pening to be then in England, very generously joined 
with Mr. Mather in some of those Addresses: Whereto 
His Majesty’s Answers were always very expressive 
of his Gracious Inclinations. Mr. Mather, herein 
assisted also by the Right Worshipful Sir Henry Ashurst, 
a most Hearty Friend of all such good Men as those 
that once filled New-England, solicited the Leading 
Men of both Houses in the Convention-Parliament, 
until a Bill for the Restoring of the Charters belonging 
to New-England, was fully passed by the Commons of 


WILLIAM PHIPS 219 


England; but that Parliament being Prorogu’d, and 
then Dissolved, all that Sisyphean Labour came to 
nothing. The Disappointments which afterwards 
most wonderfully blasted all the hopes of the Petitioned 
Restoration, obliged Mr. Mather, not without the 
Concurrence of other Agents, now also come from 
New-England, unto that Method. of Petitioning the 
King for a New Charter, that should contain more 
than all the Priviledges of the Old; and Sir William 
Phips, now being again returned into England, lent his 
utmost assistance hereunto. 

The King taking a Voyage for Holland before this 
Petition was answered; Mr. Mather, in the mean while, 
not only waited upon the greatest part of the Lords of 
His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council, offering 
them a Paper of Reasons for the Confirmation of the 
Charter-Priviledges granted unto the Massachuset- 
Colony; but also having the Honour to be introduc’d 
unto the Queen, he assured Her Majesty, That there 
were none in the World better affected unto their 
Majesties Government than the People of New-England, 
who had indeed been exposed unto great Hardships 
for their being so; and entreated, that since the King 
had referred the New-English Affair unto the Two Lord 
Chief Justices, with the Attorney and Solicitor General, 
there might be granted unto us what they thought was 
reasonable. Whereto the Queen replied, That the 
Request was reasonable; and that she had spoken 
divers times to the King on the behalf of New-England; 
and that for her own part, she desired that the People 
there might not meerly have Justice, but Favour done 
to them. When the King was returned, Mr. Mather, 
being by the Duke of Devonshire brought into the 
King’s Presence on April 28. 1691. humbly pray d 


220 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


His Majesties Favour to New-England; urging, That 
if their Old Charter-Priviledges might be restored 
unto them, his Name would be great in those Parts 


of the World as long as the World should stand; 
adding, 


Site 
: OUR Subjects there have been willing to veniure 
their Lives, that they may enlarge your Domin- 
ions; the Expedition to Canada was a Great and 
Noble Undertaking. 

May it please your Majesty, in your great Wisdom 
also to consider the Circumstances of that People, as in 
your Wisdom you have considered the Circumstances of 
England, and of Scotland. Jn New-England they differ 
from other Plantations; they are called Congregational 
and Presbyterian. So that such a Governour will not 
suit with the People of New-England, as may be very 
proper for other English Plantations. 


Two Days after this, the King, upon what was 
proposed by certain Lords, was very inquisitive, 
whether he might, without breach of Law, set a Gover- 
nour over New-England; whereto the Lord Chief 
Justice, and some others of the Council, answered, 
That whatever might be the Merit of the Cause, 
inasmuch as the Charter of New-England stood vacated 
by a Judgment against them, it was in the King’s 
Power to put them under what Form of Government 
he should think best for them. 

The King then said, ‘That he believed it would be 
‘for the Advantage of the People in that Colony, to 
‘be under a Governour appointed by himself: Never- 
‘theless (because of what Mr. Mather had spoken to 


WILLIAM PHIPS 221 


him) ‘He would have the Agents of New-England 
‘nominate a Person that should be agreeable unto the 
‘Inclinations of the People there; and notwithstanding 
‘this, he would have Charter-Priviledges restored and 
‘confirmed unto them. 

The Day following the King began another Voyage 
to Holland; and when the Attorney General’s Draught 
of a Charter, according to what he took to be His 
Majesties Mind, as expressed in Council, was presented 
at the Council-Board, on the Fighth of June, some 
Objections then made, procured an Order to prepare 
Minutes for another Draught, which deprived the 
New-Englanders of several Essential Priviledges in 
their other Charter. Mr. Mather put in his Objections, 
and vehemently protested, That he would sooner part 
with his Life, than consent unto those Minutes, or any 
thing else that should infringe any Liberty or Privi- 
ledge of Right belonging unto his Country; but he 
was answered, That the Agents of New-England were 
not Plenipotentiaries from another Soveraign State; 
and that if they would not submit unto the King’s 
Pleasure in the Settlement of the Country, they must 
take what would follow. 

The dissatisfactory Minutes were, by Mr. Mather’s 
Industry, sent over unto the King in Flanders; and 
the Ministers of State then with the King were earnestly 
applied unto, that every mistake about the good Settle- 
ment of New-England might be prevented; and the 
Queen her self, with her own Royal Hand, wrote unto 
the King, that the Charter of New-England might 
either pass as it was drawn by the Attorney General, 
or be deferred until his own Return. 

But after all, His Majesties Principal Secretary of 
State received a Signification of the King’s Pleasure, 


20, MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


that the Charter of New-England should run in the 
Main Points of it as it was now granted: Only there 
were several Important Articles which Mr. Mather 
by his unwearied Solicitations obtained afterwards 
to be inserted. 

There were some now of the Opinion, that instead 
of submitting to this New Settlement, they should, 
in hopes of getting a Reversion of the Judgment against 
the Old Charter, declare to the Ministers of State, 
That they had rather have no Charter at all, than 
such an one as was now proposed unto Acceptance. 
But Mr. Mather advising with many unprejudiced 
Persons, and Men of the greatest Abilities in the King- 
dom, Noblemen, Gentlemen, Divines and Lawyers, they 
all agreed, that it was not only a lawful, but all Cir- 
cumstances then considered, a Needful thing, and a 
part of Duty and Wisdom to accept what was now 
offered, and that a peremptory refusal would not only 
bring an Inconveniency, but a Fatal, and perhaps, a 
Final Ruin upon the Country; whereof Mankind 
would lay the blame upon the Agents. 


It was argued, That such a Submission was no 
Surrender of any thing; that the Judgment, not in 
the Court of King’s Bench, but in Chancery against the 
Old Charter, standing on Record, the Pattern! was 
thereby Annihilated; that all attempts to have the 
Judgment against the Old Charter taken off, would 
be altogether in vain, as Men and Things were then 
disposed. 

It was further argued, That the Ancient Charter of 
New-England was in the Opinion of the Lawyers very 
Defective, as to several Powers, which yet were abso- 

1 Patent, charter, 


WILLIAM PHIPS 222 


lutely necessary to the subsistence of the Plantation: 
It gave the Government there no more Power than the 
Corporations have in England; Power in Capital Cases 
was not therein particularly expressed. 

It mentioned not an House of Deputies, or an Assem- 
bly of Representatives; the Governour and Company 
had thereby (they said) no Power to impose Taxes 
on the Inhabitants that were not Freemen, or to erect 
Courts of Admiralty. Without such Powers the Colony 
could not subsist; and yet the best Friends that New- 
England had of Persons most Learned in the Law, 
professed, that suppose the judgment against the 
Massachuset-Charter might be Reversed, yet, if they 
should again Exert such Powers as they did before 
the Quo Warranto against their Charter, a new Writ 
of Scire Facias would undoubtedly be issued out against 
them. 

It was yet further argued, That if an Act of Parlia- 
ment should have Reversed the Judgment against the 
Massachuset-Charter, without a Grant of some other 
Advantages, the whole Territory had been, on many 
Accounts, very miserably Incommoded: The Province 
of Main, with Hampshire, would have been taken from 
them; and Plymouth would have been annexed unto 
New-York; so that this Colony would have been 
squeezed into an Atom, and not only have been render’d 
Insignificant in its Trade, but by having its Militia 
also, which was vested in the King, taken away, its 
Insignificancies would have become out of measure 
humbling; whereas now, instead of seeing any Relief 
by Act of Parliament, they would have been put under 
a Governour, with a Commission, whereby ill Men, 
and the King’s and Country’s Enemies might probably 
have crept into Opportunities to have done Ten Thou- 


224 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


sand ill things, and have treated the best Men in the 
Land after a very uncomfortable manner. 

It was lastly argued, That by the New Charter very 
great Priviledges were granted unto New-England; 
and in some respects greater than what they formerly 
enjoyed. The Colony is now made a Province, and 
their General Court, has, with the King’s Approbation, 
as much Power in New-England, as the King and Parlia- 
ment have in England. hey have all English Liberties, 
and can be touched by no Law, by no Tax, but of 
their own making. All the Liberties of their Holy 
Religion are for ever se ured,! and their Titles to their 
Lands, once for want of some Forms of Legal Convey- 
ance, contested, are now confirmed unto them If 
an ill Governour should happen to be imposed on them, 
what hurt could he do to them? None, except they 
themselves pleased; for he cannot make one Counsellor, 
or one Judge, or one Justice, or one Sheriff to serve 
his Turn: Disadvantages enough, one would think, 
to Discourage any ill Governour from desiring to be 
Stationed in those uneasie Regions. The People have 
a Negative upon all the Executive Part of the Civil 
Government, as well as the Legislative, which is a vast 
Priviledge, enjoyed by no other Plantation in America, 
nor by Ireland, no, nor hitherto by England it self. 
Why should all of this good be refused or despised, 
because of somewhat not so good attending it? The 
Despisers of so much good, will certainly deserve a 
Censure, not unlike that of Causabon,? upon some who 
did not value what that Learned Man counted highly 
valuable, Vix ilis optart quidquam peius potest, quam 


1 Secured. 
2 Causabon 1s either Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) or Meric Casau- 
bon (1599-1671). Both were Swiss scholars and critics. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 226 


ut fatuitate sua fruantur:' Much good may do them 
with their Madness! All of this being well considered, 
Sir William Phips, who had made so many Addresses 
for the Restoration of the Old Charter, under which 
he had seen his Country many Years flourishing, will 
be excused by all the World from any thing of a Fault, 
in a most unexpected passage of his Life, which is now 
to be related. 


Sir Henry Ashurst, and Mr. Mather, well knowing 
the agreeable Disposition to do Good, and the King 
and his Country Service, which was in Sir William 
Phips, whom they now had with them, all this while 
Prosecuting his Design for Canada, they did unto the 
Council-Board nominate him for the GOVERNOUR of 
New-England. And Mr. Mather being by the Earl of 
Nottingham introduced unto His Majesty, said, 


Sir, 
Do, in the behalf of New-England, most humbly 
| thank your Majesty, in that you have been pleased, 
by a Charter, to restore English Liberties unto them, 
to confirm them in their Properties, and to grant them 
some peculiar Priviledges. I doubt not, but that your 
Subjects there will demean themselves with that duti- 
ful Affection and Loyalty to your Majesty, as that you 
will see cause to enlarge your Royal Favours towards 
them. And I do most humbly thank your Majesty, in 
that you have been pleased to give leave unto those that 
are concerned for New-England to nominate their Gover- 

nour. 
Sir William Phips has been accordingly nominated 


1 “Hardly anything worse can be hoped for them, than that they 
may have the fruit of their folly.” 


226 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


by us at the Council-Board. He hath done a good Service 
for the Crown, by enlarging your Dominions, and reducing 
of Nova Scotia to your Obedience. I know that he will 
faithfully serve your Majesty to the utmost of his Capacity; 
and if your Majesty shall think fit to confirm him tn 
that place, it will be a further Obligation on your Subjects 
there. 


The Effects of all this was, that Sir William Phips 
was now invested with a Commission under the King’s 
Broad-Seal to be Captain General, and Governour in 
Chief over the Province of the Massachuset-Bay in 
New-England: Nor do I know a Person in the World 
that could have been proposed more acceptable to the 
Body of the People throughout New-England, and 
on that score more likely and able to serve the King’s 
Interests among the People there, under the Changes 
in some things unacceptable, now brought upon them. 
He had been a Gideon, who had more than once ven- 
tured his Life to save his Country from their Enemies; 
and they now, with universal Satisfaction said, Thou 
shalt rule over us. Accordingly, having with Mr. Mather 
kissed the King’s Hand on January 3d, 1691. he hastned 
away to his Government; and arriving at New-England 
the Fourteenth of May following, attended with the 
Non-such-Frigat, both of them were welcomed with 
the loud Acclamations of the long shaken and shatter’d 
Country, whereto they were now returned with a 
Settlement so full of happy Priviledges. 


$15. When Titus Flaminius had freed the poor 
Grecians from the Bondage which had long oppressed 
them, and the Herald Proclaimed among them the 
Articles of their Freedom, they cried out, 4 Saviour! 


WILLIAM PHIPS 227 


A Saviour! with such loud Acclamations, that the 
very Birds fell down from Heaven astonish’d at the 
Cry. Truly, when Mr. Mather brought with him 
unto the poor New-Englanders, not only a Charter, 
which though in divers Points wanting what both he 
and they had wished for, yet for ever delivers them from 
Oppressions on their Christian and English Liberties, 
or on their Ancient Possessions, wherein ruining Writs 
of Intrusion had begun to Invade them all, but also a 
GOVERNOUR who might call New-England his own 
Country, and who was above most Men in it, full of 
Affection to the Interests of his Country; the sensible 
part of the People then caused the Sence of the Sal- 
vations thus brought them to reach as far as Heaven 
it self. The various little Humours then working 
among the People, did not hinder the Great and General 
Court of the Province to appoint a Day of Solemn 
THANKSGIVING to Almighty God, for Granting 
(as the Printed Order expressed it) a safe Arrival to 
his Excellency our Governour, and the Reverend Mr. 
Increase Mather, who have industriously endeavoured 
the Service of this People, and have brought over with 
them a Settlement of Government, 1n which their Majesties 
have graciously given us distinguishing Marks of their 
Royal Favour and Goodness. 


And as the obliged People thus gave Thanks unto 
the God of Heaven, so they sent an Address of Thanks 
unto Their Majesties, with other Letters of Thanks 
unto some Chief Ministers of State, for the Favourable 
Aspect herein cast upon the Province. 

Nor were the People mistaken, when they promised 
themselves all the kindness imaginable from this 
Governour, and expected, Under his shadow we shall 


228 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


live easie among the Heathen: Why might they not 
look for Halcyon-days, when they had such a King’s- 
Fisher, for their Governour? 

Governour Phips had, as every raised and useful 
Person must have, his Envious Enemies; but the palest 
Envy of them, who turned their worst Enmity upon 
him, could not hinder them from confessing, That 
according to the best of his Apprehension, he ever sought 
the good of his Country: His Country quickly felt this 
on innumerable Occasions; and they had it eminently 
demonstrated, as well in his promoting and approving 
the Council’s choice of good Judges, Justices and Sher- 
iffs, which being once established, no Successor could 
remove them, as in his urging the General Assembly 
to make themselves happy by preparing a Body of 
good Laws as fast as they could, which being passed 
by him in his time, could not be nulled by any other 
after him. 

He would often speak to the Members of the general 
Assembly in such Terms as these, Gentlemen, You may 
make your selves as easie as you will for ever; consider 
what may have any tendency to your welfare; and you 
may be sure, that whatever Bills you offer to me, consistent 
vith the Honour and Interest of the Crown, I'll pass them 
readily; I do but seek Opportunities to serve you; had 
it not been for the sake of this thing, I had never accepted 
the Government of this Province; and whenever you have 
settled such a Body of good Laws, that no Person coming 
after me may make you uneaste, I shall desire not one 
Day longer to continue 1n the Government. Accordingly 
he ever passed every Act for the welfare of the Province 
proposed unto him; and instead of ever putting them 
upon Buying his Assent unto any good Act, he was 
much forwarder to give it, than they were to ask it: 


WILLIAM PHIPS 229 


Nor indeed, had the Hunger of a Salary any such 
Impression upon him, as to make him decline doing 
all possible Service for the Publick, while he was not 
sure of having any Proportionable or Honourable 
Acknowledgments. 

But yet he minded the Preservation of the King’s 
Rights with as careful and faithful a Zeal as became a 
good Steward for the Crown: And, indeed, he studied 
nothing more than to observe such a Temper in all 
things, as to extinguish what others have gone to 
distinguish; even the Pernicious Notion of a separate 
Interest. There was a time when the Roman Empire 
was infested with a vast number of Governours, who 
were Infamous for Infinite Avarice and Villany; and 
referring to this time, the Apostle John had a Vision 
of People killed with the Beasts of the Earth. 

But Sir William Phips was none of those Governours; 
wonderfully contrary to this wretchedness was the 
Happiness of New-England, when they had Governour 
Phips, using the tenderness of a Father towards the 
People; and being of the Opinion, Ditare magis esse 
Regium quam Ditescere,' that it was a braver thing to 
enrich the People, than to grow rich himself. A Father, 
I said; and what if I had said an Angel too? If I should 
from Clemens Alexandrinus, from Theodoret, and from 
Jerom, and and [sic] others among the Ancients, as well 
as from Calvin, and Bucan, and Peter Martyr, and Chem- 
nitius, and Bullinger, and a Thousand more among the 
Moderns, bring Authorities for the Assertion, That each 
Country and Province is under the special Care of some 
Angel, by a singular Deputation of Heaven assigned 
thereunto, I could back them with a far greater Author- 
ity than any of them all. The Scripture it self does 

1 “Tt is more king-like to enrich than to be enriched.” 


230 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


plainly assert it: And hence the most Learned Grotius, 
writing of Commonwealths, has a Passage to this pur- 
pose, His singulis, suos Attributos, esse Angelos, ex 
Daniele, magno consensu, &F Juder &F Christian veteres 
colligebant. 

But New-England had now, besides the Guardian- 
Angel, who more invisibly intended its welfare, a 
Governour that became wonderfully agreeable there- 
unto, by his whole Imitation of such a Guardian-Angel. 
He employed his whole Strength to guard his People 
from all Disasters, which threatned them either by 
Sea or Land; and it was remark’d, that nothing re- 
markably Disastrous did befal that People from the 
time of his Arrival to the Government, until there 
arrived an Order for his leaving it: (Except one thing 
which was begun before he entred upon the Govern- 
ment:) But instead thereof, the /ndians were notably 
defeated in the Assaults which they now made upon 
the English, and several French Ships did also very 
advantageously fall into his Hands; yea, there was 
by his means a Peace restored unto the Province, that 
had been divers Years languishing under the Hectic 
Feaver of a lingring War. 

And there was this one thing more that rendred his 
Government the more desirable; that whereas ’tis 
impossible for a meer Man to govern without some 
Error; whenever this Governour was advised of any 
Error in any of his Administrations, he would imme- 
diately retract it, and revoke it with all possible Inge- 
nuity; so that if any occasion of just Complaint arose, 
it was usually his endeavour that it should not long 
be complain’d of. 


1“Old writers, both Jewish and Christian, agree, on the evidence 
of Daniel that individuals have angels assigned to them.” 


WILLIAM PHIPS 231 


O, Felices nimium, sua st Bona, norant, Nov- 


rig ig 


But having ina Parenthesis newly intimated, that 
his Excellency, when he entred on his Government, 
found one thing that was remarkably Disastrous begun 
upon it: Of that one thing we will now give some ac- 
count. 

Reader, prepare to be entertained with as prodigious 
Matters as can be put into any History! And let him, 
that writes the next Thaumatographia Pneumatica,? 
allow to these Prodigies the chief place among the Won- 
ders. 


§ 16. About the time of our Blessed Lord’s coming 
to reside on Earth, we read of so many possessed with 
Devils, that it is commonly thought the Number of 
such miserable Energumens® was then encreased above 
what has been usual in other Ages; and the Reason of 
that Increase has been made a Matter of some Enquiry. 
Now though the Devils might herein design by Preter- 
natural Operations to blast the Miracles of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, which point they gained among the 
Blasphemous Pharisees; and the Devils might herein 
also design a Villanous Imitation of what was coming 
to pass in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
wherein God came to dwell in Flesh; yet I am not with- 


1“QO most happy New Englanders, if they recognize their bless- 
ings.” Norant is probably for noscant. 

2 “Wonders of the world of spirits.”” Cotton Mather’s own Wonders 
of the Invisible World is well described by “Thaumatographia Pneu- 
matica,” and he applies this title to Chapter VII of the Sixth Book 
of the Magnalia. 

3 Persons possessed by devils. 


252 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


out suspicion, that there may be something further 
in the Conjecture of the Learned Bartholinus hereupon, 
who says, It was Quod jude preter modum, Artibus 
Magicis dediti Demonem Advocaverint, the Jews, by 
the frequent use of Magical Tricks, called in the Devils 
among them. 

It is very certain, there were hardly any People in 
the World grown more fond of Sorceries, than that 
unhappy People; The Talmuds tell us of the little 
Parchments with Words upon them, which were their 
common Amulets, and of the Charms which they mut- 
terd over Wounds, and of the various Enchantments 
which they used against all sorts of Disasters whatso- 
ever. It is affirmed in the Talmuds, that no less than 
Twenty-four Scholars in one School were killed by 
Witchcraft; and that no less than Fourscore Persons 
were Hanged for Witchcraft by one Judge in one Day. 
The Gloss adds upon it, That the Women of Israel 
had generally fallen to the Practice of Witchcrafts; and 
therefore it was required, that there should be still 
chosen into the Council one skilful in the Arts of Sorcer- 
ers, and able thereby to discover who might be guilty 
of those Black Arts among such as were accused before 
them. 

Now the Arrival of Sir William Phips to the Govern- 
ment of New-England, was at a time when a Governour 
would have had Occasion for all the Skill in Sorcery, 
that was ever necessary to a Jewish Councellor; a time 
when Scores of poor People had newly fallen under a 
prodigious Possession of Devils, which it was then gen- 
erally thought had been by Witchcrafts introduced. 
It is to be confessed and bewailed, that many Inhabi- 
tants of New-England, and Young People especially, 
had been led away with little Sorceries, wherein they 


WILLIAM PHIPS 233 


did secretly those things that were not right against the 
Lord their God; they would often cure Hurts with 
Spells, and practise detestable Conjurations with 
Sieves, and Keys, and Pease, and Nails, and Horse-shoes, 
and other Implements, to learn the things for which 
they had a forbidden and impious Curiosity. Wretched 
Books had stoln into the Land, wherein Fools were 
instructed how to become able Fortune-Tellers: Among 
which, I wonder that a blacker Brand is not set upon 
that Fortune-Telling Wheel, which that Sham-Scribler, 
that goes under the Letters of R. B. has promised in 
his Delights for the Ingenious, as an honest and pleasant 
Recreation:' And by these Books, the Minds of many 
had been so poisoned, that they studied this Finer 
Witchcraft, until, ’tis well, if some of them were not 
betray’d into what is Grosser, and more Sensible and 
Capital. Although these Diabolical Divinations are 
more ordinarily committed perhaps all over the whole 
World, than they are in the Country of New-England, 
yet, that being a Country Devoted unto the Worship 
and Service of the Lord JESUS CHRIST above the 
rest of the World, He signalized his Vengeance against 
these Wickednesses, with such extraordinary Dis- 
pensations as have not been often seen in other places. 

The Devils which had been so play’d withal, and, 
it may be, by some few Criminals more Explicitely 
engaged and imployed, now broke in upon the Country, 
after as astonishing a manner as was ever heard of. 
Some Scores of People, first about Salem, the Centre 
and First-Born of all the Towns in the Colony, and 
afterwards in several other places, were Arrested with 
many Preternatural Vexations upon their Bodies, and 

1 Nathaniel Crouch, using the initials R. B. published his Delights 
for the Ingenious in London in 1684. 


234 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


a variety of cruel Torments, which were evidently 
inflicted from the Demons, of the Invisible World. 
The People that were /nfected and Infested with such 
Demons, in a few Days time arrived unto such a Refin- 
ing Alteration upon their Eyes, that they could see their 
Tormentors; they saw a Devil of a Little Stature, and 
of a Tawny Colour, attended still with Spectres that 
appeared in more Humane Circumstances. 

These Tormentors tendred unto the afflicted a Book, 
requiring them to Sign it, or to Touch it at least, in 
token of their consenting to be Lifted in the Service 
of the Devil; which they refusing to do, the Spectres 
under the Command of that Blackman, as they called 
him, would apply themselves to Torture them with 
prodigious Molestations. 

The afflicted Wretches were horribly Distorted and 
Convulsed; they were Pinched Black and Blue: Pins 
would be run every where in their Flesh; they would 
be Scalded until they had Blisters raised on them; and 
a Thousand other things before Hundreds of Witnesses 
were done unto them, evidently Preternatural: For 
if it were Preternatural to keep a rigid Fast for Nine, 
yea, for Fifteen Days together; or if it were Preternatural 
to have one’s Hands ty’d close together with a Rope 
to be plainly seen, and then by unseen Hands presently 
pull’d up a great way from the Earth before a Croud of 
People; such Preternatural things were endured by them. 

But of all the Preternatural things which befel these 
People, there were none more unaccountable than those, 
wherein the prestigious Demons would ever now and 
then cover the most Corporeal things in the World with 
a Fascinating Mist of Invisibility. As now; a Person 
was cruelly assaulted by a Spectre, that, she said, run 
at her with a Spindle, though no Body else in the room 


WILLIAM PHIPS 235 


could see either the Spectre or the Spindle: At last, 
in her Agonies, giving a snatch at the Spectre, she 
pulled the Spindle away; and it was no sooner got 
into her Hand, but the other Folks then present beheld 
that it was indeed a Real, Proper, Iron Spindle; which 
when they locked up very safe, it was nevertheless by 
the Demons taken away to do farther Mischief. 

Again, a Person was haunted by a most abusive 
Spectre, which came to her, she said, with a Sheet about 
her, though seen to none but her self. After she had 
undergone a deal of Teaze from the Annoyance of the 
Spectre, she gave a violent Snaich at the Sheet that 
was upon it; where-from she tore a Corner, which in 
her Hand immediately was beheld by alli that were 
present, a palpable Corner of a Sheet: And her Father, 
which was now holding of her, catch’d, that he might 
keep what his Daughter had so strangely seized; but 
the Spectre had like to have wrung his Hand off, by 
endeavouring to wrest it from him: However he still 
held it; and several times this odd Accident was re- 
newed in the Family. There wanted not the Oaths 
of good credible People to these particulars. 

Also, it is well known, that these wicked Spectres did 
proceed so far as to steal several Quantities of Money 
from divers People, part of which Individual Money 
was dropt sometimes out of the Air, before sufficient 
Spectators, into the Hands of the Afflicted, while the 
Spectres were urging them to subscribe their Covenant 
with Death. Moreover, Poisons to the Standers-by, 
wholly Invisible, were sometimes forced upon the Af- 
flicted; which when they have with much Reluctancy 
swallowed, they have swoln presently, so that the com- 
mon Medicines for Poisons have been found necessary 
to relieve them: Yea, sometimes the Spectres in the 


236 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


struggles have so dropt the Pozsons, that the Standers-by 
have smelt them, and view’d them, and beheld the 
Pillows of the miserable stained with them. 

Yet more, the miserable have complained bitterly 
of burning Rags run into their forceably distended 
Mouths; and though no Body could see any such 
Clothes, or indeed any Fires in the Chambers, yet pres- 
ently the scalds were seen plainly by every Body on the 
Mouths of the Complainers. and not only the Smell, but 
the Smoke of the Burning sensibly fill’d the Chambers. 

Once more, the miserable exclaimed extreamly of 
Branding Irons heating at the Fire on the Hearth to 
mark them; now though the Sanders-by! could see no 
Irons, yet they could see distinctly the Print of them 
in the Ashes, and smell them too as they were carried 
by the not-seen Furies, unto the Poor Creatures for 
whom they were intended; and those Poor Creatures 
were thereupon so Stigmatized with them, that they 
will bear the Marks of them to their Dying Day. Nor 
are these the Tenth Part of the Prodigies that fell out 
among the Inhabitants of New-England. 

Flashy People may Burlesque these Things, but when 
Hundreds of the most sober People in a Country, 
where they have as much Mother-Wit certainly as the 
rest of Mankind, know them to be 7 rue, nothing but 
the absurd and froward Spirit of Sadducism? can 
Question them. I have not yet mentioned so much as 
one [hing that will not be justified, if it be required by 
the Oaths of more considerate Persons than any that 
can ridicule these odd Phenomena. 

But the worst part of this astonishing Tragedy is 


1 Standers-by. 
* The spirit of the Sadducees, who denied the existence of angels 
and spirits. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 237 


yet behind; wherein Sir William Phips, at last being 
dropt, as it were from the Machin of Heaven,' was an 
Instrument of easing the Distresses of the Land, now 
so darkned by the Wrath of the Lord of Hosts. There 
were very worthy Men upon the Spot where the assault 
from Hell was first made, who apprehended themselves 
call’d from the God of Heaven, to sift the business unto 
the bottom of it; and indeed, the continual Impressions, 
which the outcries and the havocks of the afflicted 
People that lived nigh unto them caused on their Minds, 
gave no little Edge to this Apprehension. 

The Persons were Men eminent for Wisdom and 
Virtue, and they went about their enquiry into the 
matter, as driven unto it by a Conscience of Duty to 
God and the World. They did in the first Place take 
it for granted, that there are Witches, or wicked Chil- 
dren of Men, who upon Covenanting with, and Commis- 
stoning of Evil Spirits, are attended by their Ministry 
to accomplish the things desired of them: To satisfie 
them in which Perswasion, they had not only the 
Assertions of the Holy Scripture; Assertions, which the 
Witch-Advocates cannot evade without Shifts, too 
foolish for any Prudent, or too profane for any Honest 
Man to use; and they had not only the well-attested 
Relations of the gravest Authors from Bodin to Bovet, 
and from Binsfeld to Bromhal and Baxter;? to deny all 
which, would be as reasonable as to turn the Chronicles 
of all Nations into Romances of Don Quixot and the 
Seven Champions;* but they had also an Ocular Demon- 


1 Cf. “deus ex machina.” 

? Mather might easily have extended indefinitely his list of learned 
writers who had upheld the reality of witchcraft. 

3 The Famous History of the Seven Champions of Christendom, by 
Richard Johnston, a romance first printed in 1596. 


238 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


stration in one, who a little before had been executed 
for Witchcraft, when Joseph Dudley, Esq; was the 
Chief Judge. There was one whose Magical Images 
were found, and who confessing her Deeds, (when a 
Jury of Doctors returned her Compos Mentts) actually 
shewed the whole Court, by what Ceremonies used unto 
them, she directed her Familiar Spirits how and where 
to Cruciate ! the Objects of her Malice; and the Experi- 
ments being made over and over again before the whole 
Court, the Effect followed exactly in the Hurts done to 
People at a distance from her. The Existence of such 
Witches was now taken for granted by those good Men, 
wherein so far the generality of reasonable Men have 
thought they ran well;? and they soon received the 
Confessions of some accused Persons to confirm them 
in it; but then they took one thing more for granted, 
wherein ’tis now as generally thought they went out of 
the Way. The Afflicted People vehemently accused 
several Persons in several Places, that the Spectres 
which afflicted them, did exactly resemble them; until 
the Importunity of the Accusations did provoke the 
Magistrates to examine them. When many of the 
accused came upon their Examination, it was found, 
that the Demons then a thousand ways abusing of the 
poor afflicted People, had with a marvellous exactness 
represented them; yea, it was found, that many of the 
accused, but casting their Eye on the afflicted, the af- 
fitcted, though their Faces were never so much another 
way, would fall down and lye in a sort of a Swoon, 
wherein they would continue, whatever Hands were 
laid upon them, until the Hands of the accused came 
to touch them, and then they would revive immediately: 
1 Torment. 
2 I. ¢,, they were right. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 230 


aes 


And it was found, that various kinds of natural Actions, 
done by many of the accused in or to their own Bodies, 
as Leaning, Bending, Turning Awry, or Squeezing 
their Hands, or the like, were presently attended with 
the like things preternaturally done upon the Bodies 
of the afflicted, though they were so far asunder, that 
the afflicted could not at all observe the accused. 

It was also found, that the Flesh of the Afflicted 
was often Bitten at such a rate, that not only the Print 
of Teeth would be left on their Flesh, but the very 
Slaver of Spittle too: And there would appear just 
such a set of Teeth as was in the accused, even such as 
might be clearly distinguished from other Peoples. 
And usually the afflicted went through a terrible deal 
of seeming Difficulties from the tormenting Spectres, 
and must be long waited on, before they could get a 
Breathing Space from their Torments to give in their 
‘Testimonies. 

Now many good Men took up an Opinion, That the 
Providence of God would not permit an Innocent 
Person to come under such a Spectral Representation; 
and that a concurrence of so many Circumstances 
would prove an accused Person to be in a Confederacy 
with the Demons thus afflicting of the Neighbours; 
they judged, that except these things might amount 
unto a Conviction, it would scarce be possible ever to 
Convict a Witch; and they had some Philosophical 
Schemes of Witchcraft, and of the Method and Manner 
wherein Magical Poisons operate, which further sup- 
ported them in their Opinion. 

Sundry of the accused Persons were brought unto 
their Trial, while this Opinion was yet prevailing in 
the Minds of the Judges and the Juries, and perhaps 
the most of the People in the Country, then mostly 


240 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Suffering; and though against some of them that were 
Tried there came in so much other Evidence of their 
Diabolical Compacts that some of the most Judicious, 
and yet Vehement Opposers of the Notions then in 
Vogue, publickly declared, Had they themselves been 
on the Bench, they could not have Acquitted them; never- 
theless, divers were Condemned, against whom the 
chief Evidence was founded in the Spectral Exhibitions. 

And it happening, that some of the Accused coming 
to confess themselves Guilty, their Shapes were no 
more seen by any of the afflicted, though the Confession 
had been kept never so Secret, but instead thereof 
the Accused themselves became in all Vexations just 
like the Afflicted; this yet more confirmed many in 
the Opinion that had been taken up. 

And another thing that quickned them yet more to 
Act upon it, was, that the Afflicted were frequently 
entertained with Apparitions of Ghosts at the same time 
that the Spectres of the supposed Witches troubled 
them: Which Ghosts always cast the Beholders into 
far more Consternation than any of the Spectres; and 
when they exhibited themselves, they cried out of 
being Murdered by the Witchcrafts, or other Violences 
of the Persons represented in the Spectres. Once or 
Twice these Apparitions were seen by others at the 
very same time that they shew’d themselves to the 
afflicted; and seldom were they seen at all, but when 
something unusual and suspicious had attended the 
Death of the Party thus appearing. 

The afflicted People many times had never heard 
any thing before of the Persons appearing in Ghost, 
or of the Persons accused by the Apparitions; and yet 
the accused upon Examination have confessed the 
Murders of those very Persons, though these accused 


WILLIAM PHIPS 241 


also knew nothing of the Apparitions that had come in 
against them; and the afflicted Persons likewise, without 
any private Agreement or Collusion, when successively 
brought into a Room, have all asserted the same 4 ppa- 
ritions to be there before them: These Murders did 
seem to call for an Enquiry. 

On the other Part, there were many Persons of great 
Judgment, Piety and Experience, who from the begin- 
ning were very much dissatisfied at these Proceedings; 
they feared lest the Devil would get so far into the Faith 
of the People, that for the sake of many Truths, which 
they might find him telling of them, they would come 
at length to believe all his Lies, whereupon what a 
Desolation of Names, yea, and of Lives also, would 
ensue, a Man might without much Witchcraft be able 
to Prognosticate; and they feared, lest in such an 
extraordinary Descent of Wicked Spirits from their 
High Places upon us, there might such Principles be 
taken up, as, when put into Practice, would unavoidably 
cause the Righteous to perish with the Wicked, and pro- 
cure the Blood-shed of Persons like the Gibeonites, whom 
some learned Men suppose to be under a false Pretence 
of Witchcraft, by Saul exterminated. 

However uncommon it might be for guililess Persons 
to come under such unaccountable Circumstances, as 
were on so many of the Accused, they held some things 
there are, which if suffered to be Common, would subvert 
Government, and Disband and Ruin Humane Society, 
yet God sometimes may suffer such Things to evene, 
that we may know thereby how much we are beholden to 
him for that restraint which he lays upon the Infernal 
Spirits, who would else reduce a World into a Chaos. 
They had already known of one at the Town of Groton 
hideously agitated by Devils, who in her Fits cried out 


242 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


much against a very Godly Woman in the Town, and 
when that Woman approached unto her, though the 
Eyes of the Creature were never so shut, she yet mani- 
fested a violent Sense of her approach: But when 
the Gracious Woman thus Impeached, had prayed 
earnestly with and for this Creature, then instead of 
crying out against her any more, she owned, that she 
had in all been deluded by the Devil. They now saw, 
that the more the Afflicted were Hearkned unto, the 
more the numbér of the Accused encreased; until at 
last many scores were cried out upon, and among them, 
some, who by the Unblameableness, yea, and Service- 
ableness of their whole Conversation, had obtained the 
Just Reputation of Good People among all that were 
acquainted with them. The Character of the Afflicted 
likewise added unto the common Distaste; for though 
some of them too were Good People, yet others of them, 
and such of them as were most Flippent at Accusing, 
had a far other Character. 

In fine, the Country was in a dreadful Ferment, and 
wise Men foresaw a long Train of Dismal and Bloody 
Conequences. Hereupon they first advised, that the 
afflicted might be kept asunder in the closest Privacy; 
and one particular Person (whom I have cause to know) 
in pursuance of this Advice, offered himself singly to 
provide Accommodations for any six of them, that so 
the Success of more than ordinary Prayer with Fasting, 
might, with Patience, be experienced, before any other 
Courses were taken.! 

And Sir William Phips arriving to his Government, 
after this ensnaring horrible Storm was begun, did 
consult the neighbouring Ministers of the Province, 
who made unto his Excellency and the Council a return, 

1 Mather here refers to himself. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 243 


(drawn up at their desire by Mr. Mather the Younger,! 
as I have been inform’d) wherein they declared. 


We gudge, that in the Prosecution of these and all such 
Witchcrafts, there is need of avery Critical and Exquisite 
Caution: Lest by too much Credulity for things received 
only upon the Devil’s Authority, there be a Door opened 
for a long Train of miserable Consequences, and Satan 
get an Advantage over us; for we should not be Ignorant 
of his Devices. 

As in complaints upon Witchcrafts, there may be 
Matters of Enquiry, which do not amount unto Matters 
of Presumption; and there may be Matters of Presump- 
tion, which yet may not be reckoned Matters of Conviction; 
so tis necessary that all Proceedings thereabout be managed 
with an exceeding Tenderness towards those that may 
be complained of; especially if they have been Persons 
formerly of an unblemished Reputation. 

When the first Enquiry is made into the Circumstances 
of such as may lye under any just Suspicion of Witch- 
crafts, we could wish that there may be admitted as Little 
as 15 possible of such Noise, Company, and Openness, 
as may too hastily expose them that are Examined; 
and that there may nothing be used as a Test for the Trial 
of the Suspected, the lawfulness whereof may be doubted 
among the People of God: But that the Directions given 
by such judicious Writers as Perkins and Bernard, be 
consulted in such a Case. 

Presumptions, whereupon Persons may be committed, 


1Cotton Mather. The “as I have been inform’d”’ is part of his 
attempt to retain his anonymity, since the life of Phips was first 
published with no author’s name. When it appeared in the Mag- 
nalia, Mather was known as its author, but he did not alter the 
phrasing of the original edition. 


244 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


and much more Convictions, whereupon Persons may 
be condemned as guilty of Witchcrafts, ought certainly 
to be more considerable, than barely the accused Persons 
being represented by a Spectre to the afflicted: Inasmuch 
as it 1s an undoubted and a notorious Thing, that a 
Demon may, by God’s Permission, appear even to ill 
Purposes in the shape of an Innocent, yea, and a Virtuous 
Man: Nor can we esteem Alterations made 1n the Suffer- 
ers, by a look or touch of the accused, to be an infallible 
Evidence of Guilt; but frequently liable to be abused by 
the Devil’s Legerdemains. 

We know not whether some remarkable Affronts 
given to the Devils, by our dis-believing of those Testi- 
montes whose whole Force and Strength 1s from them 
alone, may not put a Period unto the Progress of a direful 
Calamity begun upon us, in the accusation of so many 
Persons, whereof, we hope, some are yet clear from the 
great Transgression /aid unto their Charge. 

The Ministers of the Province also being Jealous 
lest this Counsel should not be duly followed, requested 
the President of Harvard-Colledge to Compose and 
Publish (which he did) some Cases of Conscience refer- 
ring to these Difficulties: In which Treatise he did, 
with Demonstrations of incomparable Reason and 
Reading, evince it, that Satan may appear in the 
Shape of an Innocent and a Virtuous Person, to afflict 
those that suffer by the Dzabolical Molestations: And 
that the Ordeal of the Sight, and the Touch, is not a 
Conviction of a Covenant with the Devil, but liable to 
great Exceptions against the Lawfulness, as well as the 
Evidence of it: And that either a Free and Fair Con- 
fession of the Criminals, or the Oath of two Credible 
Persons proving such Things against the Person accused, 
as none but such as have a Familiarity with the Devil 


WILLIAM PHIPS 246 


can know, or do, 1s necessary to the Proof of the Crime.! 


Thus, 


Cum misit Natura Feras, & Monstra per Orbem, 
Misit F Alciden qui Fera Monstra domet.” 


The Dutch and French Ministers in the Province of 
New York, having likewise about the same time their 
Judgment asked by the Chief Judge of that Province, 
who was then a Gentleman of New-England, they gave 
it in under their Hands, that if we believe no Vene fick 
Witchcraft, we must Renounce the Scripture of God, 
and the Consent of almost all the World; but that yet 
the Apparition of a Person afflicting another, is a very 
Insufficient Proof of a Witch; nor is it Inconsistent 
with the Holy and Righteous Government of God over 
Men, to permit the Affliction of the Neighbours, by 
Devils in the Shape of Good Men; and that a Good 
Name, obtained by a Good Life, should not be Lost 
by Meer Spectral Accusations. 

Now upon a Deliberate Review of these things, 
his Excellency first Reprieved, and then Pardoned many 
of them that had been Condemned; and there fell out 
several strange things that caused the Spirit of the 
Country to run as vehemently upon the Acquitting of 
all the accused, as it by mistake ran at first upon the 
Condemning of them. Some that had been zealously 
of the Mind, that the Devils could not in the Shapes 


1 Increase Mather’s Cases of Conscience, here referred to, was a 
perfectly explicit statement of certain rules for trying witches, and 
if its counsels had been followed, many lives would have been saved. 
As it was, after it appeared, people quickly saw the errors of the 
~ court and reformed them. 

2 “When Nature sent animals and monsters throughout the world, 
she sent also Hercules to subjugate them.” 


246 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


of good Men afflict other Men, were terribly Confuted, 
by having their own Shapes, and the Shapes of their 
most intimate and valued Friends, thus abused. And 
though more than twice [wenty had made such volun- 
tary, and harmonious, and uncontroulable Confessions, 
that if they were all Sham, there was therein the greatest 
Violation made by the Efhcacy of the Invisible World, 
upon the Rules of Understanding Humane Affairs, 
that was ever seen since God made Man upon the Earth, 
yet they did so recede from their Confessions, that it 
was very clear, some of them had been hitherto, in a 
sort of a Preternatural Dream, wherein they had said 
of themselves, they knew not what themselves. 

In fine, The last Courts that sate upon this Thorny 
Business, finding that it was impossible to Penetrate 
into the whole Meaning of the things that had hap- 
pened, and that so many unsearchable Cheats were 
interwoven into the Conclusion of a Mysterious Busi- 
ness, which perhaps had not crept thereinto at the 
Beginning of it, they cleared the accused as fast as they 
Tried them; and within a little while the afflicted were 
most of them delivered out of their Troubles also: 
And the Land had Peace restored unto it, by the God 
of Peace, treading Satan under Foot. Erasmus, among 
other Historians, does tell us, that at a Town in Ger- 
many, a Demon appearing on the Top of a Chimney, 
threatned that he would set the Town on Fire, and at 
length scattering some Ashes abroad, the whole Town 
was presently and horribly Burnt unto the Ground. 

Sir William Phips now beheld such Demons hideously 
scattering Fire about the Country, in the Exasperations 
which the Minds of Men were on these things rising 
unto; and therefore when he had well Canvased a 
Cause, which perhaps might have puzzled the Wisdom 





WILLIAM PHIPS 247 


of the wisest Men on Earth to have managed, without 
any Error in their Administrations, he thought, if it 
would be any Error at all, it would certainly be the 
safest for him to put a stop unto all future Prosecutions, 
as far as it lay in him to do it. 
He did so, and for it he had not only the Printed 
Acknowledgments of the New-Englanders, who publickly 
thanked him, 4s one of the Tribe of Zebulun, raised up 
from among themselves, and Spirited as well as Commis- 
sioned to be the Steers-man of a Vessel befogg’d in the 
Mare Mortuum! of Witchcraft, zho now so happily 
steered her Course, that she escaped Shipwrack, and was 
safely again Moored under the Cape of Good Hope; 
and cut asunder the Circean Knot of Enchantment, more 
dificult to be Dissolved than the famous Gordian one of 
Old. 
But the QUEEN also did him the Honour to write 
unto him those Gracious Letters, wherein her Majesty 
commended his Conduct in these Inexplicable Matters. 
And I did right in calling these Matters Inexplicable. 
For if, after the Kingdom of Sweden (in the Year 1669, 
and 1670.) had some Hundreds of their Children 
by Night often carried away by Spectres to an Hellish 
_ Rendezvous, where the Monsters that so Spirited them, 
did every way Tempt them to Associate with them; 
and the Judges of the Kingdom, after extraordinary 
Supplications to Heaven, upon a strict Enquiry, were 
so satisfied with the Confessions of more than Twenty 
of the accused, agreeing exactly unto the Depositions 
of the afflicted, that they put several Scores of Wttches 

to Death, whereupon the Confusions came unto a 

Period; yet after all, the chiefest Persons in the King- 
dom would Question whether there were any W1tch- 

1 “Dead Sea,” 


248 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


crafts at all in the whole Affair; it must not be wondred 
at, if the People of New-England are to this Hour full 
of Doubts, about the Steps which were taken, while a 
War from the Invisible World was Terrifying of them; 
and whether they did not kill some of their own side 
in the Smoke and Nozse of this Dreadful War. And 
it will be yet less wondred at, if we consider, that we 
have seen the whole English Nation alarumed with a 
Plot, and both Houses of Parliament, upon good 
Grounds, Voting their Sense of it, and many Persons 
most justly Hang’d, Drawn and Quarterd, for their 
share in it: When yet there are enough, who to this 
Day will pretend, that they cannot comprehend how 
much of it is to be accounted Credible. However, 
having related these wonderful Passages, whereof, 
if the Veracity of the Relator in any one Point be 
contested, there are whole Clouds of Witnesses to 
vindicate it, I will take my leave of the Matter with 
an wholesome Caution of Lactantius, which, it may be, 
some other Parts of the World besides New-England 
may have occasion to think upon; FEfficiunt Demones, 
ut que non sint, sic tamen, quasi sint, conspicienda 
Hominibus exhibeant.* 

But the Devils being thus vanquished, we shall 
next hear, that some of his most devoted and resembling 
Children are so too. 

§17. Asone of the first Actions done by Sir William, 
after he came to the Age of Doing, was to save the Lives 
of many poor People from the Rage of the Diabolical 
Indians in the Eastern Parts of the Country, so now 
he was come to the Government, his Mind was very 
vehemently set upon recovering of those Parts from 


1 “Devils so work that things which are not appear to men as if 
they were real.” 


WILLIAM PHIPS 249 


the Miseries, which a New and a Long War of the 
Indians had brought upon them’ His Birth and Youth 
in the Last, had rendred him well known unto the 
Indians there; he had Hunted and Fished many a 
weary Day in his Childhood with them; and when those 
rude Savages had got the Story by the End, that he 
had found a Ship full of Money, and was now become all 
one-a-King! ! ‘They were mightily astonished at it: But 
when they farther understood that he was become the 
Governour of New-England, it added a further Degree 
of Consternation to their Astonishment. He likewise 
was better acquainted with the Scituation of those 
Regions than most other Men; and he consider’d 
what vast Advantages might arise to no less than the 
whole English Nation, from the Lumber, and Fishery, 
and WNaval-stores, which those Regions might soon 
supply the whole Nation withal, if once they were well 
settled with good Inhabitants. 

Wherefore Governour Phips took the first Oppor- 
tunity to raise an Army, with which he Travelled in 
Person, unto the East Country, to find out and cut off 
the Barbarous Enemy, which had continued for near 
four Years together, making horrible Havock on the 
Plantations that lay all along the Northern Frontiers 
of New-England: And having pursued those worse 
than Scythian Wolves, till they could be no longer 
followed, he did with a very laudable S&ill, and unusual 
Speed, and with less Cost unto the Crown, than perhaps 
ever such a thing was done in the World, erect a strong 
Fort at Pemmaquid. 

This Fort he contrived so much in the very Heart 
of the Country now possessed by the Enemy, as very 


1 Presumably Mather here quotes directly what the Indians said. 
“ All one-a~King”’ seems to mean, “ just like a king.” 


250 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


much to hinder the several Nations of the Tawnies 
from Clanning together for the Common Disturbance; 
and his Design was, that a sufficient Garrison being 
here posted, they might from thence, upon Advice, 
issue forth to surprise that Ferocient! Enemy. At 
the same time he’would fain have gone in Person up 
the Bay of Funda,? with a convenient Force, to have 
spoiled the Nest of Rebellious Frenchmen, who being 
Rendezvouzed at St. John’s had a yearly Supply of 
Ammunition from £rance, with which they still supplied 
the Indians, unto the extream Detriment of the English; 
but his Friends for a long time would not permit him 
to expose himself unto the Inconveniencies of that 
Expedition. 

However, he took such Methods, that the /ndian Kings 
of the East, within a little while had their Stomachs 
brought down, to sue and beg for a Peace: And making 
their appearance at the New-Fort in Pemmaquid, 
Aug. 11. 1693. they did there Sign an Instrument, 
wherein, lamenting the Miseries which their Adherence 
to the French Counsels had brought them into, they 
did for themselves, and with the Consent of all the 
Indians from the River of Merrimack, to the most 
Easterly Bounds of all the Province, acknowledge 
their Hearty Subjection and Obedience unto the Crown 
of England, and Solemnly Covenant, Promise and 
Agree, to and with Sir William Phips, Captain General 
and Governour in Chief over the Province, and his 
Successors in that place, That they would for ever 
cease all Acts of Hostility towards the Subjects of the 
Crown of England, and hold a constant Friendship 
with all the English. That they would utterly abandon 


1 Ferocious. 
* Bay of Fundy, 


a 


rig titer, a ae LE Il gO a acct i me 


WILLIAM PHIPS 251 


the French Interests, and not Succour or Conceal any 
Enemy Indians, from Canada or elsewhere, that should 
come to any of their Plantations within the English 
Territories: That all English Captives, which they 
had among them, should be returned with all possible 
speed, and no Ransom or Payment be given for any 
of them: That Their Majesties Subjects the English, 
now should quietly enter upon, and for ever improve 
and enjoy all and singular their Rights of Lands, and 
former Possessions, within the Eastern Parts of the 
Province, without any Claims from any Indians or 
being ever disturbed therein: That all Trade and 
Commerce, which hereafter might be allowed between 
the English and the Indians, should be under a Regu- 
lation stated by an Act of the General Assembly, or as 
limited by the Governour of the Province, with the 
Consent and Advice of his Council. And that if any 
Controversie hereafter happen between any of the 
English and the Indians, no private Revenge was to 
be taken by the Jndians, but proper Applications to 
be made unto His Majesties Government, for the due 
remedy thereof: Submitting themselves herewithal to be 
Governed by His Majesties Laws. 

And for the Manifestation of their Sincerity in the 
Submission thus made, the Aypocritical Wretches 
delivered Hostages for their Fidelity; and then set 
their Marks and Seals, no less than Thirteen Sagamores 
of them, (with Names of more than a Persian length) 
unto this Instrument. 

The first Rise of this Indian War had hitherto been 
almost as dark as that of the River Nilus:! ’Vis true, 
if any Wild English did rashly begin to provoke and 
affront the Indians, yet the Indians had a fairer way 


1 The course of the upper Nile was long unknown. 


252 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


to obtain Justice than by Bloodshed: However, 
upon the New-English Revolution, the State of the War 
became wholly New: ‘The Government then employed 
all possible ways to procure a good Understanding with 
the Indians; but all the English Offers, Kindnesses, 
Courtesies were barbarously requited by them, with 
New Acts of the most perfidious Hostility. Notwith- 
standing all this, there were still some Nice People 
that had their Scruples about the Justice of the War; 
but upon this New Submission of the Indians, if ever 
those Rattle-snakes (the only Ratile-snakes, which, they 
say, were ever seen to the Northward of Merimack- 
River) should stir again, the most scrupulous Persons 
in the World must own, That it must be the most un- 
exceptionable piece of Justice in the World for to extinguish 
them. 

Thus did the God of Heaven bless the unwearied 
Applications of Sir William Phips, for the restoring of 
Peace unto New-England, when the Country was quite 
out of Breath, in its Endeavours for its own Preservation 
from the continual Outrages of an inaccessible Enemy, 
and by the Poverty coming 1n so like an armed Man, 
from the unsuccessfulness of their former Armies, 
that it could not imagine how to take one step further 
in its Wars. The most happy Respite of Peace beyond 
Merimack-River being thus procured, the Governour 
immediately set himself to use all possible Methods, 
that it might be Peace, like a River, nothing short of 
Everlasting. 

He therefore prevailed with Two or Three Gentle- 
men to join with him, in sending a Supply of Necessaries 
for Life unto the Indians, until the General Assembly 
could come together to settle the /ndian-Trade for the 
Advantage of the Publick, that the Indians might not by 





WILLIAM PHIPS 253 


Necessity be driven again to become a French Propriety; 
altho’ by this Action, as the Gentlemen themselves were 
great Losers in their Estates, thus he himself declared 
unto the Members of the General Assembly, that 
he would upon Oath give an Account unto them of all 
his own Gains, and count himself a Gainer, if in lieu of 
all they would give him one Beaver-Hat. The same Gen- 
erosity also caused him to take many a tedious Voyage, 
accompanied sometimes with his Fidus Achates, and 
very dear Friend, Kinsman and Neighbour, Colonel John 
Philips, between Boston and Pemmaquid; and this in 
the bitter Weeks of the New-English, which is almost a 
Russian Winter. 

He was a sort of Confessor under such Torments of 
Cold, as once made the Martyrdom of Muria, and others, 
Commemorated in Orations of the Ancients; and the 
Snow and Ice which Pliny calls, The Punishment of 
Mountains, he chearfully endured, without any other 
Profit unto himself, but only the Pleasure of thereby 
establishing and continuing unto the People the Liberty 
to Sleep quietly in their warm Nests at home, while 
he was thus concerned for them abroad. Non mth1 
sed Populo, the Motto of the Emperor Hadrian, was 
Engraved on the Heart of Sir William: NOT FOR MY 
SELF, BUT FOR MY PEOPLE: Or that of Maximin, 
Quo major, hoc Laboriosior, the more Honourable, the 
more Laborious. 

Indeed the Restlesness of his Travels to the Southern 
as well as the Eastern Parts of the Country, when the 
Publick Safety call’d for his Presence, would have made 
one to think on the Translation which the King of 
Portugal, on a very Extraordinary Occasion, gave the 
Fourth Verse in the Hundred and Twenty-first Psalm. 
He will not Slumber, nor will he suffer to Sleep the Keeper 


254 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


of Israel. Nor did he only try to Cicurate 1 the Indians 
of the Fast, by other Prudent and Proper Treatments; 
but he also furnished himself with an /ndian Preacher 
of the Gospel, whom he carried unto the Eastward, 
with an Intention to Teach them the Principles of the 
Protestant Religion, and Unteach them the mixt Paganry 
and Popery which hitherto Diaboliz’'d them. To Un- 
teach them, I say; for they had been Taught, by the 
French Priests this among other things, that the Mother 
of our Blessed Saviour was a French Lady, and that 
they were Englishmen by whom our Saviour was Mur- 
dered; and that it was therefore a Meritorious thing to 
destroy the English Nation. The Name of the Preacher 
whom the Governour carried with him, was Nahauton, 
one of the Natives; and because the passing of such 
Expressions from the Mouth of a poor Indian, may 
upon some Accounts be worthy of Remembrance; let 
it be Remembred, that when the Governour propounded 
unto him such a Mission to the Eastern Indians, he 
replied, J know that I shall probably Endanger my Life, 
by going to Preach the Gospel among the Frenchified 
Indians; but I know that it will be a Service unto the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and therefore I will venture to go. 

God grant that his Behaviour may be in all things, 
at all times, according to these his Expressions! While 
these things were doing, having Intelligence of a French 
Man of War expected at St. John’s, he dispatched away 
the Non-such-Frigat thither to intercept him; never- 
theless by the gross Negligence, and perhaps Cowardice 
of the Captain, who had lately come from England 
with Orders to take the Command of her, instead of 
one who had been by Sir William a while before put in, 
and one who had signalized himself by doing of notable 

1 Tame. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 255 


Service for the King and Country in it, the Frenchman 
arrived unladed, and went away untouch’d. ‘The 
Governour was extreamly offended at this notorious 
Deficiency; it cast him into a great Impatience to see 
the Nation so wretchedly served; and he would himself 
have gone to Saint John’s with a Resolution to Spoil 
that Harbour of Spoilers, if he had not been taken off, 
by being sent for home to Whitehall, in the very midst 
of his Undertakings. 

But the Treacherous Indians being potsoned with 
the French Enchantments, and furnished with brave 
New Coats, and New Arms, and all new Incentives to 
War, by the Man of War newly come in; they presently 
and perfidiously fell upon two English Towns, and 
Butchered and Captived many of the Inhabitants, and 
made a New War, which the New-Englanders know not 
whether it will end until either Canada become an 
English Province, or that State arrive, wherein they 
shall beat Swords into Plough-shares, and Spears into 
Purning-hooks. And no doubt, the taking off Sir 
William Phips was no small Encouragement unto the 
Indians in this Relapse, into the Villanies and Massacres 
of a New Invasion upon the Country. 


§ 18. Reader, ’tis time for us to view a little more 
to the Life, the Picture of the Person, the Actions of 
whose Life we have hitherto been looking upon. Know 
then, that for his Exterior, he was one Tall, beyond the 
common Set of Men, and Thick as well as Tall, and 
Strong as well as Thick: He was, in all respects, exceed- 
ingly Robust, and able to Conquer such Difficulties of 
Diet and of Travel, as would have kill’d most Men alive: 
Nor did the Fat, whereinto he grew very much in his 
later Years, take away the Vigour of his Motions. 


256 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


He was Well-set, and he was therewithal of a very 
Comely, though a very Manly Countenance: A Coun- 
tenance where any true skill in Physiognomy would have 
read the Characters of a Generous Mind. Wherefore 
passing to his /nterior, the very first thing which there 
offered it self unto Observation, was a most Incom- 
parable Generosity. 

And of this, besides the innumerable Instances which 
he gave in his usual Hatred of Dirty or Little Tricks, 
there was one Instance for which I must freely say, J 
never saw Three Men in this World that Equall’d him; 
this was his wonderfully Forgiving Spirit. In the vast 
Variety of Business, through which he Raced in his 
time, he met with many and mighty Injuries; but 
although I have heard all that the most venemous 
Malice could ever Hiss at his Memory, I never did 
hear unto this Hour, that he did ever once deliberately 
Revenge an Injury. 

Upon certain 4ffronts he has made sudden Returns 
that have shewed Choler enough, and he has by Blow, 
as well as by Word, chastised Incivilities: He was, 
indeed, sufficiently impatient of being put upon; and 
when Base Men, surprizing him at some Disadvantages 
(for else few Men durst have done it) have sometimes 
drawn upon him, he has, without the Wicked 
Madness of a Formal Duel, made them feel that he knew 
how to Correct Fools. Nevertheless, he ever declined 
a Deliberate Revenge of a Wrong done unto him; though 
few Men upon Earth have, in their Vicissitudes, been 
furnished with such frequent Opportunities of Revenge, 
as Heaven brought into the Hands of this Gentleman. 

Under great Provocations, he would commonly say, 
’Tis no Matter, let them alone; some time or other they'll 
see their Weakness and Rashness, and have occasion for 


WILLIAM PHIPS 257 


me to do them a Kindness: And they shall then see I 
have quite forgotten all their Baseness. Accordingly 
*twas remarkable to see it, that few Men ever did him 
a Mischief, but those Men afterwards had occasion for 
him to do them. a Kindness; and he did the Kindness 
with as forgetful a Bravery, as if the Mischief had never 
been done at all. The Emperor Theodosius himself 
could not be readier to Forgive,1 so worthily did he 
verifie that Observation. 


Quo quisque est Major, magis est Placabilis Ira, 
Et Faciles Motus, Mens Generosa capit.” 


In those Places of Power whereto the Providence of 
God by several Degrees raised him, it still fell out-so, that 
before his Rise thereunto he underwent such things as 
he counted very hard Abuses, from those very Persons 
over whom the Divine Providence afterwards gave him 
the Ascendant. 

By such Trials, the Wisdom of Heaven still prepared 
him, as David before him, for successive Advancements; 
and as he behaved himself with a marvellous Long- 
suffering, when he was Tried, by such Mortifications, 
thus when he came to be advanced, he convinced all 
Mankind, that he had perfectly Buried all the old 
Offences in an Eternal Amnesty. I was my Self an 
Ear-witness, that one, who was an Eye-witness of his 
Behaviour under such Probations of his Patience, did, 
long before his Arrival to that Honour, say unto him, 
Sir, Forgive those that give you these Vexations, and 


1 An allusion to Theodosius I, who won over the Goths, by honors 
paid to their fallen leader, Athanaric. 

2“The preater one is, the more one is placable in wrath, and a 
generous mind is easily moved.” 


258 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


know that the God of Heaven intends, before he has done 
with you, to make you the Governour of New-England! 
And when he did indeed become the Governour of 
New-England, he shew’d that he still continued a 
Governour of himself, in his Treating all that had for- 
merly been in ill Terms with him, with as much Favour 
and Freedom, as if there had never happened the least 
Exasperations: Though any Governour that Kens 
Hobbianism,! can easily contrive Ways enough to 
wreak a Spite, where he owes it. 

It was with some Christian Remark, that he read the 
Pagan-story of the Renowned Fabius Maximus, who 
being preferred unto the highest Office in the Common- 
wealth, did, through a Zeal for his Country, overcome 
the greatest Contempts that any Person of Quality 
could have received. Muinutius the Master of the 
Horse, and the next Person in Dignity to himself, did 
first privately Traduce him, as one that was no Soldier, 
and less Politician; and he afterwards did both by 
Speeches and Letters prejudice not only the Army, 
but also the Senate against him, so that Minutius was 
now by an unpresidented ? Commission brought into 
an Equality with Fabius. 

All this while the great Fabius did not throw up 
his Cares for the Commonwea!th, but with a wondrous 
Equality of Mind endured equally the Malice of the 
Judges, and the Fury of the Commons; and when 
Minutius a while after was with all his Forces upon the 
Point of perishing by the victorious Arms of Hannibal, 
this very Fabius, not listening to the Dictates of 
Revenge, came in and helped him, and saved him; 


17.¢., any governor that knows the doctrines of Hobbes, who ad- 
vocated arbitrary government. 
2 Unprecedented. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 250 


and so by a rare Virtue, he made his worst Adversaries 
the Captives of his Generosity. 

One of the Antients upon such an History, cried out, 
If Heathens can do thus much for the Glory of their Name, 
what shall not Christians do for the Glory of Heaven! And 
Sir William Phips did so much more than thus much, 
that besides his meriting the Glory of such a Name, 
as PHIPPIUS MAXIMUS,' he therein had upon 
him the Symptoms of a Title to the Glory of Heaven, 
in the Seal of his own Pardon from God. Nor was this 
Generosity in His EXCELLENCY the Governour of 
New-England, unaccompanied with many other Excel- 
lencies; whereof the Piety of his Carriage towards 
God is worthy to be first Mentioned. 

It is true, He was very Zealous for all Men to enjoy 
such a Liberty of Conscience, as he judged a Native 
Right of Mankind: And he was extreamly Troubled 
at the over-boiling Zeal of some good Men, who formerly 
took that wrong Way of reclaiming Hereticks by Per- 
secution. For this Generosity, it may be, some would 
have compared him unto Gallio, the Governour of 
Achaia, whom our Preachers, perhaps with Mistake 
enough, think to be condemned in the Scripture, for 
his not appearing to be a Judge, in Matters which 
indeed fell not under his Cognizance. 

And I shall be content that he be compared unto 
that Gentleman; for that Gallio was the Brother of 
Seneca, who gives this Character of him, That there 
was no Man who did not love him too little, if he could 
Love him any more; and, That there was no Mortal so 
Dear to any, as he was to all; and, That he hated all 
Vices, but none more than Flattery. 

But while the Generosity of Sir William caused 

1 “The very great Phips.” 


260 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


him to desire a Liberty of Conscience, his Piety would 
not allow a Liberty of Prophaneness, either to himself 
or others. He did not affect any mighty show of De- 
votion; and when he saw any that were evidently careful 
to make a show, and especially, if at the same Time 
they were notoriously Defective in the Duties of 
Common Justice or Goodness, or the Duties of the 
Relations wherein God had stationed them, he had an 
extream Aversion for them. | 

Nevertheless he did show a Consciencious Desire 
to observe the Laws of the Lord Jesus Christ in his 
Conversation; and he Conscienciously attended upon 
the Exercises of Devotion in the Seasons thereof, on 
Lectures, as well as on Lord’s Days, and in the Daily 
Sacrifice, the Morning and Evening Service of his own 
Family; yea, and at the Private Meetings of the Devout 
People kept every Fortnight in the Neighbourhood. 

Besides all this, when he had great Works before him, 
he would invite good Men to come and Fast and Pray 
with him at his House for the Success thereof; and when 
he had succeeded in what he had undertaken, he would 
prevail with them to come and keep a Day of Solemn 
Thansgiving [sic] with him. His Love to Almighty God, 
was indeed manifested by nothing more than his Love 
to those that had the /mage of God upon them; he 
heartily, and with real Honour for them, Loved all 
Godly Men; and in so doing, he did not confine Godliness 
to this or that Party, but where-ever he saw the Fear 
of God, in one of a Congregational, or Presbyterian, 
or Antipedobaptist,| or Episcopalian Perswasion, he 
did, without any Difference, express towards them a 
Reverent Affection. 

But he made no Men more welcome than those 

1 One opposed to infant baptism; a Baptist. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 261 


good Men, whose Office ’tis to promote and preserve 
Goodness in all other Men; even the Ministers of the 
Gospel: Especially when they were such as faithfully 
discharged their Office: And from these at any time, 
the least Admonition or Intimation of any good thing 
to be done by him, he entertained with a most obliging 
Alacrity. His Religion in truth, was one Principle 
that added Virtue unto that vast Courage, which was 
always in him to a Degree Heroical. Those terrible 
Nations which made their Descents from the Northern 
on the Southern Parts of Europe, in those Elder Ages, 
when so to swarm out was more frequent with them, 
were inspired with a Valiant Contempt of Life, by the 
Opinion wherein their Famous Odin instructed them. 
That their Death was but an Entrance into another Life, 
wherein they who died in Warlike Actions, were bravely 
Feasted with the God of War for ever: ’Yis inexpressible 
how much the Courage of those fierce Mortals was 
fortified by that Opinion. 

But when Sir William Phips was asked by some that 
observed his Valiant Contempt of Death, what it was 
that made him so little afraid of Dying, he gave a better 
grounded Account of it than those Pagans could; his 
Answer was, I do humbly believe, that the Lord Jesus 
Christ shed his Precious Blood for me, by his Death pro- 
curing my Peace with God: And what should I now be 
afraid of dying for? 

But this leads me to mention the Humble and Modest 
Carriage in him towards other Men, which accompanied 
this his Piety. There were certain Pomps belonging 
unto the several Places of Honour, through which he 
passed; Pomps that are very taking to Men of little 
Souls: But although he rose from so /itile, yet he 
discovered a Marvellous Contempt of those Airy things, 


262 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


and as far as he handsomely could, he declined, being 
Ceremoniously, or any otherwise than with a Dutch 
Modesty waited upon. And it might more truly be 
said of him, than it was of Aristides, He was never seen 
the Prouder for any Honour that was done him from his 
Countrymen. 

Hence, albeit I have read that Complaint, made by a 
Worthy Man, I have often observed, and this not without 
some blushing, that even good People have had a kind of 
Shame upon them, to acknowledge their low beginning, and 
used all Arts to hide it. I could never observe the least of 
that Fault in this Worthy Man; but he would speak 
of his own low beginning with as much Freedom and 
Frequency, as if he had been afraid of having it for- 
gotten. 

It was counted an Humility in King Agathocles, the 
Son of a Potter, to be served therefore in Earthen Vessels, 
as Plutarch hath informed us: It was counted an 
Humility in Archbishop Willigis,! the Son of a Wheel- 
wright, therefore to have Wheels hung about his Bed- 
Chamber, with this Inscription, Recole unde Veneris, 
1. e. Remember thy Original. But such was the Hu- 
mility and Lowliness of this Rising Man! Not only 
did he after his return to his Country in his Greatness, 
one Day, make a splendid Feast for the Ship-Carpenters 
of Boston, among whom he was willing at his Table to 
Commemorate the Mercy of God unto him, who had 
once been a Sh1p-Carpenter himself, but he would on 
all Occasions Permit, yea, Study to have his Meannesses * 
remembred. 

Hence upon frequent Occasions of Uneasiness in 
his Government, he would chuse thus to express 


1 Archbishop of Mainz, 975-1011. 
2 That is, his past low rank in the world. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 263 


himself, Gentlemen, were it not that I am to do Service for 
the Publick, I should be much easier in returning unto 
my broad Ax again! And hence, according to the 
A ffable Courtesie which he ordinarily used unto all 
sorts of Persons, (quite contrary to the Asperity which 
the old Proverb expects in the Raised) he would particu- 
larly, when Sailing in sight of Kennebeck, with Armies 
under his Command, call the Young Soldiers and Sailors 
upon Deck, and speak to them after this Fashion; 
Young Men, It was upon that Hill that I kept Sheep a 
few Years ago; and since you see that Almighty God has 
brought me to something, do you learn to Fear God, and 
be Honest, and mind your Business, and follow no bad 
Courses, and you don’t know what you may come to! 
A Temper not altogether unlike what the advanced 
Shepherd had, when he wrote the Twenty-third Psalm; 
or when he Imprinted on the Coin of his Kingdom the 
Remembrance of his Old Condition: For Christianus 
Gerson, a Christianized Jew, has informed us, That 
on the one side of David’s Coin were to be seen his 
old Pouch and Crook, the Instruments of Shepherdy; 
on the other side were enstamped the Towers of Zion. 

In fine, our Sir William was a Person of so sweet a 
Temper, that they who were most intimately acquainted 
with him, would commonly pronounce him, The best 
Conditioned Gentleman in the World! And by the 
continual Discoveries and Expressions of such a Temper, 
he so gained the Hearts of them who waited upon him 
in any of his Expeditions, that they would commonly 
profess themselves willing still, to have gone with him to 
the end of the World. 

But if all other People found him so kind a Neighbour, 
we may easily infer what an Husband he was unto his 
Lady. Leaving unmentioned that Virtue of his Chastity, 


264 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


which the Prodigious Depravation brought by the Late 
Reigns upon the Manners of the Nation, has made 
worthy to be mentioned as a Virtue somewhat Extraor- 
dinary;1 I shall rather pass on to say, That the Love, 
even to Fondness, with which he always treated her, 
was a Matter not only of Observation, but even of such 
Admiration, that every one said, The Age afforded 
not a kinder Husband! 

But we must now return to our Story. 

§ 19. When Persons do by Studies full of Curiosity, 
seek to inform themselves of things about which the 
God of Heaven hath forbidden our Curious Enquiries, 
there is a marvellous Impression, which the Demons 
do often make on the Minds of those their Votaries, 
about the Future or Secret Matters unlawfully enquired 
after, and at last there is also an horrible Possession, 
which those Fatidic? Demons do take of them. ‘The 
Snares of Hell, hereby laid for miserable Mortals, have 
been such, that when | read the Laws, which Agellius 
afirms to have been made, even in Pagan Rome, against 
the Vaticinatores; * | wonder that no English Nobleman 
or Gentleman signalizes his regard unto Christianity, 
by doing what even a Roman Tully would have done, 
in promoting 4n Act of Parliament against that Paganish 
Practice of Judicial Astrology,* whereof, if such Men as 
Austin were now living, they would assert, The Devil 
first found it, and they that profess 1t are Enemies of 
Truth and of God. 


1 An allusion to the moral decline in England during the Restora- 
tion period. 

2 Prophetic. 

3 “Soothsayers.” 

4The supposed act of determining occult influences of the stars 
and planets on human lives and affairs. ° 


WILLIAM PHIPS 265 


In the mean time, I cannot but relate a wonderful 
Experience of Sir William Phips, by the Relation 
wnereof something of an Antidote may be given against 
a Poison, which the Diabolical Figure-Flingers and 
Fortune-Tellers that swarm all the World over may 
insinuate into the Minds of Men. Long before Mr. 
Phips came to be Sir William, while he sojourned in 
in [sic] London, there came into his Lodging an Old 4s- 
trologer, living in the Neighbourhood, who making some 
Observation of him, though he had small or no Convzer- 
sation with him, did (howbeit by him wholly undesired) 
one Day send him a Paper, wherein he had, with Pre- 
tences of a Rule in Astrology for each Article, distinctly 
noted the most material Passages that were to befal 
this our Phips in the remaining part of his Life; it 
was particularly Asserted and Inserted, That he should 
be engaged in a Design, wherein by Reason of Enemies 
at Court, he should meet with much delay; that never- 
theless in the Thirty-Seventh Year of his Life, he should 
find a mighty Treasure; that in the Forty-First Year of 
his Life, his King should employ him in as great a Trust 
beyond Sea, as a Subject could easily have: That 
soon after this he should undergo an hard Storm from 
the Endeavours of his Adversaries to reproach him and 
ruin him; that his Adversaries, though they should 
go very near gaining the Point, should yet miss of 
doing so; that he should hit upon a vastly Richer Maiter 
than any that he had hitherto met withal; that he 
should continue Thirteen Years in his Publick Station, 
full of Action, and full of Hurry; and the rest of his 
Days he should spend in the Satisfaction of a Peaceable 
Retirement. 

Mr. Phips received this undesired Paper with Trouble 
and with Contempt, and threw it by among certain 


266 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


loose Papers in the bottom of a Trunk, where his Lady 
some Years after accidentally lit upon it. His Lady 
with Admiration saw, step after step, very much of it 
accomplished; but when she heard from England, 
that Sir William was coming over with a Commission 
to be Governour of New-England, in that very Year of 
his Life, which the Paper specified; she was afraid of 
letting it lye any longer in the House, but cast it into 
the fire. 

Now the thing which I must invite my Reader to 
remark, is this, That albeit Almighty God may permit 
the Devils to Predict, and perhaps to Perform very many 
particular things to Men, that shall by such a Presump- 
tuous and Unwarrantable Juggle as Astrology (so Dr. 
Hail well calls it!) or any other Divination, consult 
them, yet the Devil! which foretel many True things, 
do commonly foretel some that are False, and it may be, 
propose by the things that are True to betray Men into 
some fatal Misbelief and Miscarriage about those 
that are False. 

Very singular therefore was the Wisdom of Sir 
William Phips, that as he ever Treated these Prophestes 
about him with a most Pious Neglect, so when he had 
seen all but the Two last of them very punctually 
fulfilled, yea, and seen the beginning of a Fulfilment 
unto the last but one also, yet when I pleasantly men- 
tioned them unto him, on purpose to 7'ry whether there 
were any occasion for me humbly to give him the 
serious Advice, necessary in such a Case to Anticipate 
the Devices of Satan, he prevented my Advice, by saying 
to me, Sir, [ do believe there might be a cursed Snare 
of Satan in those Prophesies: I believe Satan might have 
leave to foretel many things, all of which might come to 

1 Devils. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 267 


pass in the beginning, to lay me asleep about such things 
as are to follow, especially about the main Chance of all; 
I do not know but I am to die this Year: For my part, 
by the help of the Grace of God, I shall endeavour to live 
as if I were this Year to die. And let the Reader now 
attend the Event! 

§ 20. “Tis a Similitude which I have Learned from 
no less a Person than the great Basil: That as the 
Eye sees not those Objects which are applied close 
unto it, and even lye upon it; but when the Objects 
are to some distance removed, it clearly discerns them: 
So, we have little sense of the Good which we have in 
our Enjoyments, until God, by the removal thereof, 
teach us better to prize what we once enjoyed. It is 
true, the Generality of sober and thinking People 
among the New-Englanders, did as highly value the 
Government of Sir William Phips, whilst he lived, as 
they do his Memory, since his Death; nevertheless it 
must be confessed, that the Blessing which the Country 
had in his indefatigable Zeal, to serve the Publick in 
all it’s Interests, was not so valued as it should have 
been. 

It was mention’d long since as a notorious Fault in 
Old Egypt, that it was Loguax &F Ingeniosa in Contume- 
liam Prefectorum Provincia; s1 quis forte vitaverit Culpam, 
Contumeliam non effugit:' And New-England has been 
at the best always too faulty, in that very Character, 
A Province very Talkative, and Ingenious for the vilifying 
of its Publick Servants. 

But Sir William Phips, who might in a Calm of the 
Commonwealth have administred all things with as 
General an Acceptance as any that have gone before 


1 “Free-spoken and ingenious in slandering the rulers in the prov- 
: : ; re 
ince; if by chance anyone avoided guilt, he did not escape slander. 


268 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


him, had the Disadvantage of being set at Helm in a 
time as full of Storm as ever that Province had seen; 
and the People having their Spirits put into a Tumult 
by the discomposing and distempering Variety of 
Disasters, which had long been rendring the time 
Calamitous, it was natural for them, as ’tis for all 
Men then, to be complaining; and you may be sure, 
the Rulers must in such Cases be always complained 
of, and the chief Complaints must be heaped upon 
those that are Commanders 1n Chief. Nor has a certain 
Proverb in Asia been improper in America, He deserves 
no Man’s good Word, of whom every Man shall speak well. 

Sir William was very hardly Handled (or Tongued 
at least) 1m the Liberty which People took to make 
most unbecoming and injurious Reflections upon his 
Conduct, and  Bretawr against him, even for those 
very Actions which were not only Necessary to be done, 
but highly Beneficial unto themselves; and though he 
would ordinarily smile at their Frowardness, calling it 
his Country Pay, yet he sometimes resented it with 
some uneasiness; he seem’d unto himself sometimes 
almost as bad as Rolled about in Regulus’s Barrel; ? 
and had occasion to think on the Jtalian Proverb, 
To wait for one who does not come; to lye a Bed not able to 
sleep; and to find 1t 1mpossible to please those whom we 
serve; are three Griefs enough to kill a Man. 

But as Froward as the People were, under the Epe- 
demical Vexations of the Age, yet there were very few 
but would acknowledge unto the very Last, Jt will be 
hardly possible for us to see another Governour that shall 
more intirely Love and Serve the Country: Yea, had the 
Country had the Choice of their own Governour, ’tis 


1 Regulus was tortured by being placed in a barrel or chest which 
was studded with nails pointing inward. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 269 


judged their Votes, more than Forty to One, would 
have still fallen upon him to have been the Man: And 
the General Assembly therefore on all occasions renewed 
their Petitions unto the King for his Continuance. 

Nevertheless, there was a little Party of Men, who 
thought they must not sleep till they had caused him to 
fall: And they so vigorously prosecuted certain Articles 
before the Council-board at Whitehall against him, 
that they imagined they had gained an Order of His 
Majesty in Council, to suspend him immediately from 
his Government, and appoint a Commuttee of Persons 
nominated by his Enemies, to hear all Depositions 
against him; and so a Report of the whole to be made 
unto the King and Council. 

But His Majesty was too well informed of Sir Wil- 
liam’s Integrity to permit such a sort of Procedure; and 
therefore he signified unto His most Honourable Coun- 
cil, that nothing should be done against Sir William, 
until he had Opportunity to clear himself; and there- 
upon he sent His Royal Commands unto Sir William 
to come over. To give any retorting Accounts of the 
Principal Persons who thus adversaried him, would be 
a Thing so contrary to the Spirit of Sir William Phips 
himself, who at his leaving of New-England bravely 
declared that he freely forgave them all; and if he had 
returned thither again, would never have taken the 
least revenge upon them, that This alone would oblige 
me, if I had no other Obligations of Christianity upon 
me, to forbear it; and it may be, for some of them, it 
would be to throw Water upon a drowned Mouse. 

Nor need I to produce any more about the Articles 
which these Men exhibited against him, than 7/15; 
that it was by most Men believed, that if he would 
have connived at some Arbitrary Oppressions too much 


270 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


used by some kind of Officers on the King’s Subjects, 
Few perhaps, or None of those Articles had ever been 
formed; and that he apprehended himself to be provided 
with a full Defence against them all. 

Nor did His Excellency seem loth to have had his 
Case Tried under the Brazen Tree of Gariac, if there 
had been such an one, as that mentioned by the Fabu- 
lous Murtadi, in his Prodigies of Egypt, a Tree which 
had Iron Branches with sharp Hooks at the end of them, 
that when any false Accuser approached, as the Fabel 
says, immediately flew at him, and stuck in him, until 
he had ceased Injuring his Adversary. 

Wherefore in Obedience unto the King’s Commands, 
he took his leave of Boston on the seventeenth of 
November, 1694. attended with all proper Testimonies 
of Respect and Honour from the Body of the People, 
which he had been the Head unto; and with Addresses 
unto their Majesties, and the Chief Ministers of State 
from the General Assembly, humbly imploring, that 
they might not be deprived of the Happiness which 
they had in such an Head. 

Arriving at Whitehall, he found in a few Days, 
that notwithstanding all the Impotent Rage of his 
Adversaries particularly vented and printed in a Villan- 
ous Libel, as well as almost in as many other ways as 
there are Mouths, at which Fyal! sometimes has 
vomited out its Infernal Fires, he had all Humane 
Assurance of his returning in a very few Weeks again 
the Governour of New-England. 

Wherefore there were especially two Designs, full 
of Service to the whole English Nation, as well as his 
own particular Country of New-England, which he 
applied his Thoughts unto. First, He had a new Scene 

1 Fayal, a volcanic island in the Azores. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 271 


of Action opened unto him, in an opportunity to supply 
the Crown with all Naval Stores at most easie Rates, 
from those Eastern Parts of the Massachuset Province, 
which through the Conquest that he had made thereof, 
came to be Inserted in the Massachuset-Charter. As 
no Man was more capable than he to improve this 
Opportunity unto a vast Advantage, so his Inclination 
to it was according to his Capacity. 

And he longed with some Impatience to see the 
King furnished from his own Dominions, with such 
floating and stately Castles, those Wooden-Walls of 
Great Britain, for much of which he has hitherto Traded 
with Foreign Kingdoms. Next, if | may say next unto 
this, he had an Eye upon Canada; all attempts for 
the reducing whereof had hitherto proved Abortive. 

It was but a few Months ago that a considerable 
Fleet, under Sir Francis Wheeler, which had been sent 
into the West-Indies to subdue Martenico,! was ordered 
then to call at New-England, that being recruited there, 
they might make a further Descent upon Canada; 
but Heaven frowned upon that Expedition, especially 
by a terrible Sickness, the most like the Plague of any 
thing that has been ever seen in America, whereof there 
Died, e’er they could reach to Boston, as I was told 
by Sir Francis himself, no less than Thirteen Hundred 
Sailers out of Twenty One, and no less than Ezghteen 
Hundred Soldiers out of Twenty-four. 

It was now therefore his desire to have satisfied the 
King, that his whole Interest in America lay at Stake, 
while Canada was in French Hands: And therewithal 
to have laid before several Noblemen and Gentlemen, 
how beneficial an Undertaking it would have been for 
them to have pursued the Canadian-Business, for 

1 Martinique. 


pag 43 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


hot 


which the New-Englanders were now grown too Feeble; 
their Country being too far now, as Bede says England 
once was, Omni Milite & floride Juventutis Alacritate 
spoliata.* 

Besides these two Designs in the Thoughts of Sir 
William, there was a Third, which he had Hopes that 
the King would have given him leave to have pursued, 
after he had continued so long in his Government, as 
to have obtained the more General Welfare which he 
designed in the former Instances. I do not mean the 
making of New-England the Seat of a Spanish Trade, 
though so vastly profitable a thing was likely to have 
been brought about, by his being one of an Honourable 
Company engaged in such a Project. 

But the Spanish Wreck, where Sir William had made 
his first good Voyage, was not the Only, nor the Richest 
Wreck, that he knew to be lying under the Water. 
He knew particularly, that when the Ship which had 
Governour Boadilla Aboard, was cast away, there 
was, as Peter Martyr says, an entire Table of Gold 
of Three Thousand Three Hundred and Ten Pound 
Weight. 

The Duke of Albemarle’s Patent for all such Wrecks 
now expiring, Sir William thought on the Motto which 
is upon the Gold Medal, bestowed by the late King, 
with his Knighthood upon him, Semper Tibi pendeat 
Hamus:* And supposing himself to have gained sufh- 
cient Information of the right Way to such a Wreck, 
it was his purpose upon his Dismission from his Govern- 
ment, once more to have gone unto his old Fishing- 
Trade, upon a mighty Shelf of Rocks and Bank of Sands 
that lye where he had informed himself. 


1“ Despoiled of young and active soldiery.” 
2“ May your fish-hook always hang out.” 


WILLIAM PHIPS 273 


But as the Prophet Haggai and Zechariah, in their 
Psalm upon the Grants made unto their People by the 
Emperors of Persia have that Reflection, Man’s Breath 
goeth forth, he returns to his Earth; in that very Day his 
thoughts perish. My Reader must now see what came 
of all these considerable Thoughts. About the middle 
of February, 1694. Sir William found himself indisposed 
with a Cold, which obliged him to keep his Chamber; 
but under this Indisposition he received the Honour 
of a Visit from a very Eminent Person at Whitehall, 
who upon sufficient Assurance, bad him Get well as fast 
as he could, for in one Months time he should be again 
dispatched away to his Government of New-England. 

Nevertheless his Distemper proved a sort of Malig- 
nant Feaver, whereof many about this time died in the 
City; and it suddenly put an End at once unto his 
Days and Thoughts, on the Eighteenth of February; 
to the extream surprize of his Friends, who Honourably 
Interr’d him in the Church of St. Mary Woolnoth, and 
with him, how much of New-England’s Happiness! 

§ 21. Although he has now no more a Portion for 
ever in any Thing that is done under the Sun, yet Justice 
requires that his Memory be not forgotten. I have not 
all this while said He was Fauliless, nor am I unwilling 
to use for him the Words which Mr. Calamy had in his 
Funeral Sermon for the Excellent Earl of Warwick, 
It must be confessed, lest I should prove a Flatterer, he 
had his Infirmities, which I trust Jesus Christ hath covered 
with the Robe of his Righteousness: My Prayer to God 
is, that all his Infirmities may be Buried in the Grave of 
Oblivion, and that all his Virtues and Graces may Super- 
vive; although perhaps they were no /nfirmities in that 
Noble Person, which Mr. Calamy counted so. 

Nevertheless I must also say, That if the Anguish 


274 | MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


of his Publick Fatigues threw Sir William into any 
Faults of Passion; they were but Faults of Passion 
soon Recall’d: And Spots being soonest seen in Ermin, 
there was usually the most made of them that could 
be, by those that were least Free themselves. 

After all, I do not know that I have been, by any 
personal Obligations or Circumstances, charmed into 
any Partiality for the Memory of this Worthy Man; 
but I do here, from a real Satisfaction of Conscience 
concerning him, declare to all the World, that I reckon 
him to have been really a very Worthy Man; that few 
Men in the World rising from so mean an Original as he, 
would have acquitted themselves with a Thousand 
Part of his Capacity or Integrity; that he left unto the 
World a notable Example of a Disposition to do Good, 
and encountred and overcame almost invincible Temp- 
tations in doing It. 

And I do most solemnly Profess, that I have most 
conscienciously endeavoured the utmost Sincerity and 
Veracity of a Christian, as well as an Historian, in the 
History which I have now given of him. I have not 
written of Sir William Phips, as they say Xenophon 
did of Cyrus, Non ad Historie Fidem, sed ad Effigiem 
vert imperit;! what should have been, rather than 
what really was. If the Envy of his few Enemies be 
not now Quiet, I must freely say it, That for many 
Weeks before he died, there was not one Man among 
his personal Enemies whom he would not readily and 
chearfully have done all the kind Offices of a Friend 
unto: Wherefore though the Gentleman in England 
that once published a Vindication of Sir William Phips 
against some of his Enemies, chose to put the Name of 
Publicans upon them, they must in this be counted 


1“ Aiming not at truth of history, but at a picture of true empire.” 


WILLIAM PHIPS 275 


worse than the Publicans of whom our Saviour says, 
They Love those that Love them. 

And I will say this further, That when certain Persons 
had found the Skull of a Dead Man, as a Greek Writer 
of Epigrams has told us, they all fell a Weeping, but 
only one of the Company, who Laughed and Flouted, 
and through an unheard-of Cruelty, threw Stones at 
it, which Stones wonderfully rebounded back upon the 
Face of him that threw them, and miserably wounded 
him: Thus if any shall be so Unchristian, yea, so 
Inhumane, as libellously to throw Stones at so deserved 
a Reputation as this Gentleman has died withal, they 
shall see a Just Rebound of all their Calumnies. 


But the Name of Sir WILLIAM PHIPS will be 
heard Honourably mentioned in the Trumpets of 
Immortal Fame, when the Names of many that Antip- 
athied him will either be Buried in Eternal Oblivion, 
without any Sacer Vates! to preserve them; or be 
remembred, but like that of Judas in the Gospel, or 
Pilate in the Creed, with Eternal Infamy. 

The old Persians indeed, according to the Report of 
Agathias, exposed their Dead Friends to be Torn in 
Pieces by Wild Beasts, believing that if they lay long 
unworried, they had been unworthy Persons; but all 
attempts of surviving Malice to demonstrate in that 
way the worth of this Dead Gentleman, give me leave 
to Rate off with Indignation. 

And I must with a like Freedom say, That great was 
the Fault of New-England no more to value a Person, 
whose Opportunities to serve all their Interests, though 
very Eminent, yet were not so Eminent as his Jclina- 
tions, If this whole Continent carry in its very Name of 

1 “Sacred poet.” 


276 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


AMERICA, an unaccountable Jngratitude unto that 
Brave Man who first led any numbers of Europeans 
thither, it must not be wondred at, if now and then a 
particular Country in that Continent afford some 
Instances of Ingratitude: But I must believe, that the 
Ingratitude of many, both to God and Man, for such 
Benefits as that Country of New-England enjoy’d from 
a Governour of their own, by whom they enjoyed great 
quietness, with very worthy Deeds done unto that Nation 
by his Providence, was that which hastned the Removal 
of such a Benefactor from them. 

However, as the Cyprians buried their Friends in 
Honey, to whom they gave Gall when they were Born; 
thus whatever Gall might be given to this Gentleman 
while he lived, I hope none will be so base, as to put 
any thing but Honey into their Language of him now 
after his Decease. And indeed, since ’tis a frequent 
thing among Men to wish for the Presence of our 
Friends, when they are dead and gone, whom, while 
they were present with us, we undervalued; there is 
no way for us to fetch back our Sir William Phips, 
and make him yet Living with us, but by setting up a 
Statue for him, as ’tis done in these Pages, that may 
out-last an ordinary Monument. 

Such was the Original Design of erecting Statues, and 
if in Venice there were at once no less than an Hundred 
and Sixty-two Marble, and Twenty-three Brazen 
Statues, erected by the Order, and at the Expence of 
the Publick, in Honour of so many Valiant Soldiers, 
who had merited well of that Commonwealth, I am 
sure New-England has had those, whose Merits call 
for as good an acknowledgment; and, whatever they did 
before, it will be well, if after Sir William Phips, they 


find many as meritorious as he to be so acknowledged. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 277 


Now I cannot my self provide a better Statue for 
this Memorable Person, than the Words uttered on the 
occasion of his Death in a very great Assembly, by a 
Person of so Diffus’d and Embalm’d a Reputation in 
the Church of God, that such a Character from him 
were enough to Immortalize the Reputation of the 
Person upon whom he should bestow it. 

The Grecians employ’d still the most Honourable 
and Considerable Persons they had among them, to 
make a Funeral Oration in Commendation of Soldiers 
that had lost their Lives in the Service of the Publick: 
And when Sir William Phips, the Captain General of 
-New-England, who had often ventured his Life to serve 

the Publick, did expire, that Reverend Person, who 
was the President of the only University then in the 
English America,! Preached a Sermon on that Passage 

of the Sacred Writ, Isa. 57.1. Merciful Men are taken 
away, none considering that the Righteous are taken away 
from the Evil to come; and in it gave Sir William Phips 
the following Testimony. 

‘This Province is Beheaded, and lyes a Bleeding. 

‘A GOVERNOUR is taken away, who was a Merciful 
‘Man; some think too Merciful: And if so, ’tis best 

‘Erring on that Hand; and a Righteous Man; who, 

‘when he had great Opportunities of gaining by /n- 

‘sustice, did refuse to do so. 

‘He was a known Friend unto the best Interests, 
‘and unto the Churches of God: Not ashamed of owning 
‘them: No, how often have I heard him expressing 
‘his Desires to be an Instrument of Good unto them! 

‘He was a Zealous Lover of his Country, if any Man in 
‘the World were so: He exposed himself to serve it; 
‘he ventured his Life to save it: In that, a true Nehe- 


1 Increase Mather. 








278 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


‘miah, a Governour that sought the welfare of his 
‘People. 

“He was one who did not seek to have the Govern- 
‘ment cast upon him: No, but instead thereof to my 
‘Knowledge he did several times Petition the King, 
‘that this People might always enjoy the great Privi- 
‘ledge of chusing their own Governour; and | have heard 
‘him express his Desires, that it might be so, to several 
‘of the Chief Ministers of State in the Court of England. 

‘He is now Dead, and not capable of being Flattered: 
‘But this I must testifie concerning him, That though 
‘by the Providence of God I have been with him at 
“Home and Abroad, near at Home, and afar off, by 
‘Land and by Sea, J never saw him do any evil Action, 
‘or heard him speak any thing unbecoming a Christian. 

“The Circumstances of his Death seem to intimate 
‘the Anger of God, in that he was in the Midst of his 
‘Days removed; and I know (though Few did) that he 
‘had great Purposes in his Heart, which probably would 
“have taken Effect, if he had lived a few Months longer, 
‘to the great Advantage of this Province; but now he 
‘is gone, there is not a Man Living in the World 
‘capacitated for those Undertakings; New-England 
“knows not yet what they have lost! 

The Recitation of a Testimony so great, whether for 
the Author, or the Matter of it, has now made a Statue 
for the Governour of New-England, which 


Nec poterit Ferrum, nec edax abolere vetustas.} 


And there now remains nothing more for me to do 
about it, but only to recite herewithal a well-known 
Story related by Suidas, That an Envious Man, once 
going to pull down a Statue which had been raised unto 


1 “No sword nor greedy time can destroy.” 


WILLIAM PHIPS 279 


the Memory of one whom he maligned, he only got this 
by it, that the Statue falling down, knock’d out his 
Brains. 

But Poetry as well as History must pay it’s Dues unto 
him. If Cicero’s Poem intituled, Quadrige, wherein 
he did with a Poetical Chariot extol the Exploits of 
Cesar in Britain to the very Skies, were now Extant 
in the World, I would have Borrowed some Flights of 
That at least, for the Subject now to be Adorned. 

But instead thereof, let the Reader accept the ensuing 
Elegy. 


| 
SL TLL Se a aa I 
RONG ELE 


DEATH 
OF 


Sir William Jabhtps, Kne. 


Late Captain General and Governour in Chief of the 
Province of the Massachuset-Bay in New-England, 
Who Expired in London, Feb. 18. 1695. 


And to Mortality a Sacrifice 
Falls He, whose Deeds must Him Immortalize! 


Ejoice Messieurs; Netops! rejoice; ’tis true, 

R Ye Philistines, none will rejoice but You: 

Loving of All He Dy’d; who Love him not 
Now, have the Grace of Publicans forgot. 
Our Almanacks foretold a great Eclipse, 
This they foresaw not, of our greater PHIPS. 
PHIPS our great Friend, our Wonder, and our Glory, 
The Terror of our Foes, the World’s rare Story. 
England will Boast him too, whose Noble Mind 
Impell’d by Angels, did those Treasures find, 
Long in the Bottom of the Ocean /ard, 
Which her Three Hundred Thousand Richer made, 
By Silver yet ne’er Canker’d, nor defil’d 
By Honour, nor Betray’d when Fortune smil’d. 
Since this bright Phoebus visited our Shoar, 


1“ Messieurs”—the French, Phips’ enemies. Netop is an Indian 
word, used by Indians in greeting one another. 


280 


WILLIAM PHIPS 281 


We saw no Fogs but what were rais’d before: 
Those vanish’d too; harrass’d by Bloody Wars 
Our Land saw Peace, by his most generous Cares. 
The Wolvish Pagans at his dreaded Name, 
Tam’d, shrunk before him and his Dogs became! 
Fell Moxus and fierce Dockawando fall,! 
Charm’d at the Feet of our Brave General. 


Fly-blow the Dead, Pale Envy, let him not 
(What Hero ever did?) escape a Blot. 
All is Distort? with an Inchanted Eye, 
And Heighth will make what's Right still stand awry. 
He was, Oh that He was! His Faults we'll tell, 
Such Faults as these we knew, and lik’d them well. 


Just to an Injury; denying none 
Their Dues; but Self-denying oft his own. 


Good to a Miracle; resolv’'d to do 
Good unto All, whether they would or no. 
To make Us Good, Great, Wise, and all Things else, 
He wanted but the Gift of Miracles. 
On him, vain Mob, thy Mischiefs cease to throw; 
Bad, but alone in This, the Times were so. 


Stout to a Prodigy; living in Pain 
To send back Quebeck-Bullets once again. 
Thunder, his Musick, sweeter than the Spheres, 
Chim’d Roaring Canons in his Martial Ears. 
Frigats of armed Men could not withstand, 
’Twas try’d, the Force of his one Swordless Hand: 
Hand, which in one, all of Briareus had, 
And Hercules’s twelve Toils but Pleasures made. 


1 Moxus and Dockawando, (or Madockawando) were Indian chiefs. 
2 Distorted. 


282 MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA 


Too Humble; in brave Stature not so Tall, 
As low in Carriage, stooping unto all. 
Rais’d in Estate, in Figure and Renown, 
Not Pride; Higher, and yet not Prouder grown. 
Of Pardons full; ne’er to Revenge at all, 
Was that which He would Satisfaction call. 


True to his Mate; from whom though often flown. 
A Stranger yet to every Love but one. 
Write Him not Childness,! whose whole People were 
Sons, Orphans now, of Hts Paternal Care. 


Now lest ungrateful Brands we should incur, 


Your Salary we'll pay in Tears, GREAT SIR! 


To England often blown, and by his Prince 
Ofien sent laden with Preferments thence. 
Preferr'd each Time He went, when all was done 


That Earth could do, Heaven fetch’d Him to a Crown. 


’Tis He: With Him Interr’d how great designs! 
Stand Fearless now, ye Eastern Firrs and Pines. 
With Naval Stores not to enrich the Nation, 
Stand, for the Universal Conflagration. 

Mines, opening unto none but Him, now stay 

Close under Lock and Key, till the Last Day: 

In this, like to the Grand Aurifick Stone, 

By any but Great Souls not to be known. 

And Thou Rich Table, with Bodilla lost, 

In the Fair Galeon, on our Spanish Coast. 

In weight Three Thousand and Three Hundred Pound, 

But of pure Massy Gold, lye Thou, not found, 

Safe, since He’s laid under the Earth asleep, 

Who learnt where Thou dost under Water keep. 
' Childless. 


WILLIAM PHIPS 283 


But Thou Chief Loser, Poor NEW-ENGLAND, 
speak 
Thy Dues to such as did thy Welfare seek, 
The Governour that vow’d to Rise and Fall 
With Thee, Thy Fate shows in His Funeral. 
Write now His Epitaph, ’twill be Thine own, 
Let it be this, A PUBLICK SPIRIT ’s GONE. 
Or, but Name PHIPS; more needs not be exprest; 
Both Englands, and next Ages, tell the Rest. 


The End of the Second BOO K. 


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SELECTIONS FROM “THE CHRISTIAN 
PHILOSOPHER” 


THE PREFACE 
Rexicio PuiLtosopuica; ! 
OR, THE 
Christian Philosopher: 
BEING 


A Commentary, of the more Modern and Certain 
PHILosopHy,’” upon that Instruction, 


Jos xxxvi. 24. 


Remember that thou magnify His Work which Men behold. 


of the World, are what I now propose to 

exhibit; in brief Essays to enumerate some 
of them, that He may be glorified in them: And in- 
deed my Essays may pretend unto no more than 
some of them; for, Theophilus? writing, of the Crea- 
tion, to his Friend Antolycus, might very justly say, 
That if he should have a Thousand Tongues, and 
live a Thousand Years, yet he were not able to describe 
the admirable Order of the Creation, Sa To trrepBarrov 
peryeBos kat Tov TAOUTOY copias TOU Meov, Such a Tran- 


f NHE Works of the Glorious GOD in the Creation 


1“Philosophic (or Scientific) Religion.” 
2 Philosophy in the sense of science in general. 


3 Theophilus of Antioch, died 1g0 A. D. 
285 


286 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 
scendent Greatness of God, and the Riches of his Wisdom 


appearing in 1t! 

Chrysostom, I remember, mentions a Twofold Book of 
GOD; the Book of the Creatures, and the Book of 
the Scriptures: GOD having taught first of all us 
dua mpayuatov, by his Works, did it afterwards da 
| ypappatov, by his Words. We will now for a while 
_ read the Former of these Books, ’twill help us in reading 
the Latter: They will admirably assist one another. 
The Philosopher being asked, What his Books were; 
answered, Totius Entis Naturalis Universitas. All 
Men are accommodated with that Publick Library. 
Reader, walk with me into it, and see what we shall 
find so legible there, that he that runs may read it. Be- 
hold, a Book, whereof we may agreeably enough use 
the words of honest #gardus;: Lectu hic omnibus 
facilis, etst nunquam legere didicerint, &F communis est 
omnibus, omniumque ocults expositus.” 


THE 
INTRODUCTION 


HE Essays now before us will demonstrate, 
that Philosophy is no Enemy, but a mighty 
and wondrous Incentive to Religion; and they 
will exhibit that PHtLosopHicaL RELIGION, which will 


carry with it a most sensible Character, and _ vic-| 
torious Evidence of a reasonable Service. GLORY | 


1 “The natural university of all the existing universe.” 

2 “Here is reading easy for everyone even though they have not 
learned to read, and it is open to all, and set out before everyone’s 
eyes,” 


THE INTRODUCTION 287 


TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, and GOOD-WILL 
TOWARDS MEN, animated and exercised; and a 
Spirit of Devotion and of Charity inflamed, in such 
Methods as are offered in these Essays, cannot but 
be attended with more Benefits, than any Pen of 
ours can declare, or any Mind conceive. 

In the Dispositions and Resolutions of Piety thus 
enkindled, a Man most effectually shews himself a 
Man, and with unutterable Satisfaction answers the 
grand Enp of his Being, which is, To glorify GOD. 
He discharges also the Office of a Priest for the Creation, 
under the Influences of an admirable Saviour, and 
therein asserts and assures his Title unto that Priest- 
hood, which the Blessedness of the future State will 
very much consist in being advanced to. The whole 
World is indeed a Temple of GOD, built and filled 
by that Almighty Architect; and in this Temple, every 


such one, affecting himself with the Occasions for it, | | 


will speak of His Glory. He will also rise into that 
Superior Way of Thinking and of Living, which the 
Wisest of Men will chuse to take; which the more 
Polite Part of Mankind, and the Honourable of the Earth, 
will esteem it no Dishonour for them to be acquainted 
with. Upon that Passage occurring in the best of 
Books, Ye Sons of the Mighty, ascribe unto the Lord Glory 
and Strength; it is a Gloss and an Hint of Munster, which 
carries with it a Cogency: Nihil est tam sublime, 
tamque magnificum, quod non teneatur laudare tS magnif- 
icare Deum Creatorem suum.! Behold, a_ Religion, 
which will be found without Controversy; a Religion, 
which will challenge all possible Regards from the 
High, as well as the Low, among the People; I will 


1“Nothing is so sublime or magnificent as not to be bound to 
magnify and praise the Lord, its creator.” 


= a 


288 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


resume the Term, a ParLosopHicaL RELIGION: And 
yet how Evangelical! 

In prosecuting this Intention, and in introducing al- 
most every Article of it, the Reader will continually 
find some Author or other quoted. This constant Method 
of Quoting, ’tis to be hoped, will not be censured, as 
proceeding from an Ambition to intimate and boast a 
Learning, which the Messteurs du Port-Royal: have 
rebuked; and that the Humour for which /ustin 
reproached Julian, will not be found in it: Quis hec 
audiat, {5 non ipso nominum strepitu terreatur, si est 
ineruditus, qualis est hominum multitudo, 9 existimet 
te aliquem magnum qui hec scire potueris?? Nor will 
there be discernible any Spice of the impertinent Van- 
ity, which La Bruyere hath so well satirized: ‘Herillus 
“will always cite, whether he speaks or writes. He makes 
‘the Prince of Philosophers to say, That Wine inebriates; 
‘and the Roman Orator, That Water temperates it. If he 
‘talks of Morality, it is not he, but the Divine Plato, 
‘who afhirms, That Virtue is amiable, and Vice odious. 
“The most common and trivial things, which he himself 
‘1s able to think of, are ascribed by him to Latin and 
‘Greek Authors.’ But in these Quotations, there has 
been proposed, first, a due Gratitude unto those, who 
have been my Instructors; and_ indeed, something 
within me would have led me to it, if Pliny, who is 
one of them, had not given me a Rule; Ingenuum est 
profitert per quos profeceris.* It appears also but a piece 


‘ Port-Royal, a famous community in France, including among 
its members some of the most learned men of the 17th century. 

* “Who can hear this and not be frightened by the very sound of 
the names—provided he is not learned, as most men are not—and who 
but will consider you great because you know so much?” 

* “Tt is noble to acknowledge by whom you have profited.” 


THE INTRODUCTION 289 


of Justice, that the Names of those whom the Great 
GOD has distinguished, by employing them to make 
those Discoveries, which are here collected, should live 
and shine in every such Collection. Among these, let 
it be known, that there are especially Two, unto whom 
I have been more indebted, than unto many others; 
the Industrious Mr. Ray, and the Inquisitive Mr. 
DeruaM; Fratrum dulce par:' upon whom, in divers 
Paragraphs of this Rhapsody,” I have had very much 
of my Subsistence; (I hope without doing the part of 
a Fidentinus upon them) and I give thanks to Heaven 
for them. 

*Tis true, some Scores of other Philosophers have 
been consulted on this Occasion; but an Industry so 
applied, has in it very little to bespeak any Prazses for 
him that has used it: He earnestly renounces them, 
and sollicits, that not only he, but the Greater Men, 
who have been his Teachers, may disappear before the 
Glorious GOD, whom these Essays are all written to 
represent as worthy to be praised, and by whose Grace we 
are what we are; nor have we any thing but what we 
have received from Him. 

A considerable Body of Men (if the Jansenists* may 
now be thought so) in France, have learnt of Monsieur 
Pascal, to denote themselves by the French Impersonal 
Particle On; and it was his opinion, that an honest 
Man should not be fond of naming himself, or using the 
word I, and ME; that Christian Piety will annihilate our 
I, and Mg, and Human Civility will suppress it, and 
conceal it. 


1“ A sweet pair of brothers.” See Introduction, pages xlix—l. 

2 A collection, a literary work without definite form. 

3 A school of Roman Catholic theologians, whose views dominated 
Port-Royal. 


290 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


Most certainly there can be very little Pretence to 
an I, or Me, for what is done in these Essays. ’Tis 
done, and entirely, by the Help of God: This is all that 
can be pretended to. 

There is very little, that may be said, really to be 
performed by the Hand that is now writing; but only 
the Devotionary Part of these Essays, tho they are 
not altogether destitute of American Communications: 
And if the Virtuoso’s, and all the Genuine Philosophers 
of our Age, have approved the Design of the devout 
Ray and Deruam, and others, in their Treatises; it 
cannot be distasteful unto them, to see what was more 
generally hinted at by those Excellent Persons, here more 
particularly carried on, and the more special Flights of 
the true PHiLosopHicaL RELIGION exemplified. Nor 
will they that value the Essays of the memorable 
Antients, Theodoret, and Nazianzen, and Ambrose, 
upon the Works of the six Days, count it a Fault, if among 
lesser Men in our Days, there be found those who say, 
Let me run after them. 1 remember, when we read, 
Praise is comely for the Upright, it is urged by Kimchz, 
that the Word whichwe render comely, signifies desirable, 
and acceptable; and the Sense of that Sentence is, 
that Qut recti sunt, aliud nihil desiderant quam Laudem 
Gloriam Dei.'/ Sure I am, such Essays as these, to ob- 
serve, and proclaim, and publish the Praises of the 
Glorious GOD, will be desirable and acceptable to all 
that have a right Spirit in them; the rest, who are blinded, 
are Fools, and unregardable: As littlé to be regarded 
as a Monster flourishing a Broomstick! Vix illis optari 
quidquam pejus potest, quam ut fatuitate sua fruantur.? 


1 “The righteous desire nothing but the praise and glory of God.” 
2 “Hardly anything worse can be hoped for them, than that they 
may have the fruit of their folly.” 


THE INTRODUCTION 291 


For such Centaurs to be found in the Tents of professed 
Christianity!—Good God, unto what Times hast thou 
reserved us! If the self-taught Philosopher will not, yet 
Abubeker, a Mahometan Writer, by whom such an one 
was exhibited more than five hundred Years ago, will 
rise up in the Judgment with this Generation, and con- 
demn tt. Reader, even a Mahometan will shew thee 
one, without any Teacher, but Reason in a serious View 
of Nature, led on to the Acknowledgment of a Glorious 
GOD. Of a Man, supposed as but using his Rational 
Faculties in viewing the Works of GOD, even the 
Mahometan will tell thee; ‘There appeared unto him 
‘those Fooststeps of Wisdom and Wonders in the 
‘Works of Creation, which affected his Mind with an 
“excessive Admiration; and he became hereby assured, 
‘that all these things must proceed from such a Volun- 
‘tary Agent as was infinitely perfect, yea, above all 
‘Perfection: such an one to whom the Weight of the 
‘least Atom was not unknown, whether in Heaven or 
‘Earth. Upon his viewing of the Creatures, whatever 
‘Excellency he found of any kind, he concluded, it must 
“needs proceed from the Influence of that / oluntary 
“Agent, so illustriously glorious, the Fountain of Being, 
‘and of Working. He knew therefore, that whatsoever 
‘Excellencies were by Nature in Him, were by so 
‘much the greater, the more perfect, and the more 
‘lasting; and that there was no proportion between 
‘those Excellencies which were in Him, and those 
‘which were found in the Creatures. He discerned 
‘also, by the virtue of that more Noble Part of his, 
‘whereby he knew the necessarily existent Being, that 
‘there was in him a certain Resemblance thereof: And 
‘he saw, that it was his Duty to labour by all: manner 
“of Means, how he might obtain the Properties of 


292 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


‘that Being, put on His Qualities, and imitate His 
‘Actions; to be diligent and careful also in promoting 
‘His Will; to commit all his Affairs unto Him, and 
‘heartily to acquiesce in all those Decrees of His which 
‘concerned him, either from within, or from without: 
‘so that he pleased himself in Him, tho he should 
“afflict him, and even destroy him.’ I was going to say, 
O Mentis auree Verba bracteata!' But the Great 
Alsted instructs me, that we Christians, in our valuable 
Citations from them that are Strangers to Christianity, 
should seize upon the Sentences as containing our 
Truths, detained in the hands of Unjust Possessors; 
and he allows me to say, Audite Ciceronem, quem Natura 
docuit.2 However, this | may say, God has thus far 
taught a Mahometan! And this I will say, CAristian, 
beware lest a Mahometan be called in for thy Condem- 
nation! 

Let us conclude with a Remark of Minutius Felix: 
‘If so much Wisdom and Penetration be requisite to 
‘observe the wonderful Order and Design in the Struc- 
‘ture of the World, how much more were necessary 
‘to form it!’ If Men so much admire Philosophers, 
because they discover a small Part of the Wisdom that 
made all things; they must be stark blind, who do not 
admire that Wisdom itself! 


1 “Q golden words of a golden mind.” 

2 “Hear Cicero, whom Nature taught.” 

3 Marcus Minucius Felix, Latin apologist for Christanity, in the 
third century. 


OF THE EARTH 293 
ESSAY XXIII. Of the Eartu. 
‘ke Lord by Wisdom has founded the Earth. A 


poor Sojourner on the Earth now thinks it his 
Duty to behold and admire the Wisdom of his 
glorious Maker there. 

The £arth, which is the Basis and Support of so 
many Vegetables and Animals, and yields the alimen- 
tary Particles, whereof Water is the Vehicle, for their 
Nourishment: Quorum omnium (as Tully saith well) 
incredibilis Multitudo, insatiabilt Varietate distingut- 
tur.} 

The various Moulds and Soils of the Earth declare 
the admirable Wisdom of the Creator, in making such 
a provision for a vast variety of Intentions. God said, 
Let the Earth bring forth! 

And yet, 


Nec vero Terre ferre omnes omnia possunt.” 
a 


It is pretty odd; they who have written de Arte 
Combinatoria, reckon of no fewer than one hundred 
and seventy-nine Muillions, one thousand and sixty 
different sorts of Earth: But we may content ourselves 
with Sir John Evelyn’s Enumeration, which is very 
short of that.® 

However, the Vegetables owe not so much of their 
Life and Growth to the Larth itself, as to some agree- , 
able Juices or Salts lodg’d in it. Both Mr. Boyle and 
Van Helmont, by Experiments, found the Earth scarce 

1“QOf all these an incredible number, divided with inexhaustible 
variety.” 

2 “Not all lands can bear all things.” 


3 Mather here draws on Evelyn’s Terra, whence he takes his 
reference to the De Arte Combinatoria. 


294 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


at all diminished when Plants, even Trees, had been 
for divers Years growing in it. 

The Strata of the Earth, its Lays and Beds, afford 
surprizing Matters of Observation: the Objects lodged 
in them; the Uses made of them; and particularly the 
Passage they give to sweet Waters, as being the Calan- 
ders! wherein they are sweetned. It is asserted that 
these are found all to lie very much according to the 
Laws of Gravity. Mr. Derham went far to demonstrate 
this Assertion. 

The vain Colts of Asses, that fain would be wise, have 
cavill’d at the unequal Surface of the Earth, have open’d 
against the Mountains, as if they were superfluous 
Excrescences; but Warts deforming the Face of the 
Earth, and Proofs the Earth is but an Heap of Rubbish 
and Ruins. Pliny had more of Religion in him. 

The sagacious Dr. Halley has observed, That the 
Ridges of Mountains being placed thro the midst of 
their Continents, do serve as Alembicks, to distil fresh 
Waters in vast Quantities for the Use of the World: 
And their Heights give a Descent unto the Streams, 
to run gently, like so many Veins of the Macrocosm, 
to be the more beneficial to the Creation. The genera- 
tion of Clouds, and the distribution of Rains, accom- 
modated and accomplished by the Mountains, is indeed 
so observable, that the learned Scheuchzerand Creitlovius 
can’t forbear breaking out upon it witha Mirati summam 
Creatoris Sapientiam! ” | 

What Rivers could there be without those admirable 
Tools of Nature! 

Vapours being raised by the Sun, acting on the Sur- 

17. e., colanders, strainers. 


2 “Wonderful is the lofty wisdom of the Creator.”” The quotation 
and the names of the two authorities, are taken direct from Derham. 


OFF TAEPEARTA 295 


face of the Sea, as a Fire under an Alembick, by rarefy- 
ing of it, makes the lightest and freshest Portions 
thereof to mse first; which Rarefaction is made (as Dr. 
Cheyne observes)! by the insinuation of its active Parti- 
cles among the porous Parts thereof, whereby they are 
put into a violent Motion many different ways, and 
so are expanded into little Bubbles of larger Dimensions 
than formerly they had; and so they become specifically 
lighter, and the weightier Atmosphere buoys them up. 
The Streams of these Vapours rest in places where the 
Air is of equal Gravity with them, and are carried up 
and down the dimosphere by the course of that Air, 
till they hit at last against the sides of the Mountains, 
and by this Concussion are condensed, and thus become 
heavier than the Air they swum in, and so gleet down 
the rocky Caverns of these Mountains, the inner parts 
whereof being hollow and stony, afford them a Bason, 
until they are accumulated in sufficient Quantities, to 
break out at the first Crany: whence they descend 
into Plains, and several of them uniting, form Rivulets; 
and many of those uniting, do grow into Rivers. This 
is the Story of them; this their Pedigree! 

Minerals are dug out of Mountains; which, if they 
were sought only in level Countries, the Delfs would 
be so flown with Waters, that it would be impossible 
to make Addits or Soughs to drein them.? Here is, as 
Olaus Magnus expresses it, Inexhausta pretiosorum 
Metallorum ubertas.® 

A German Writer, got upon the Mountains, gives this 
Account of them: Sunt ceu tot naturales Fornaces €hymi- 


1 Mather refers to Dr. George Cheyne’s Philosophical Principles 
of Religion, Natural and Revealed. 

2 Delf =a ditch; addits and soughs = drains, gutters. 

® “Tnexhaustible plenty of precious minerals.” 


296 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


ce, in quibus Deus varia Metalla 9 Mineralia excoqutt 
€F maturat.! 

The Habitations and Situations of Mankind are made 
vastly the more comfortable for the Mountains. There 
is a vast Variety of Plants proper to the Mountains: and 
many Animals find the Mountains their most proper 
places to breed and feed in. The highest Hills a Refuge 
to the wild Goats! A Point Mr. Ray has well spoken to. 

They report that Hippocrates did usually repair to 
the Mountains for the Plants, by which he wrought 
the chief of his Cures. 

Mountains also are the most convenient Boundaries 
to Territories, and afford a Defence unto them. One 
calls them the Bulwarks of Nature, cast up at the Charges 
of the Almighty; the Scorns and Curbs of the most victorious 
Armies. Vhe Barbarians in Curtius* were confidently 
sensible of this! 

Yea, we may appeal to the Senses of all Men, whether 
the grateful Variety of Hills and Dales be not more 
pleasing than the largest continued Plains. 

"Tis also a salutary Conformation of the Earth; some 
Constitutions are best suited above, and others below. 

Truly these massy and lofty Piles can by no means 
be spared. 

Galen, thou shalt chastize the Pseudo-Christians, 
whe reproach the Works of God. Say! Accusandi 
sané mead Sententia hic sunt Sophiste, quit cium nondum 
inventre neque exponere Opera Nature queant, eam tamen 
inertia atque inscitia condemnant.® 





1 “They are like so many natural chemical furnaces in which God 
tempers and ripens various metals and minerals.” 

2 Quintus Curtius, historian. 

3 “Those sophists are blameable, who, since they cannot discover 
or make clear the works of nature, condemn it from laziness and 
ignorance.” 


OF THE EARTH 297 


Say now, O Man, say, under the sweet Constraints 
of Demonstration, Great GOD, the Earth is full of thy 
Goodness! 

And Dr. Grew shall carry on the more general Obser- 
vation for us. “How little is the Mischief which the 
“Air, Fire, or Water sometimes doth, compared with 
‘the innumerable Uses to which they daily serve? Be- 
“sides the Seas and Rivers, how many wholesome Springs 
“are there for one that is poisonous? Are the Northern 
“Countries subject to Cold? They have a greater 
‘plenty of Furs to keep the People warm. Would those 
“under or near the Lme be subject to Heat? They have 
‘a constant Kasterly Breeze, which blows strongest in 
‘the Heat of the Day, to refresh them: And with this 
“Refreshment without, they have a variety of excellent 
‘Fruits to comfort and cool them within. How admir- 
‘ably are the Clouds fed with Vapours, and carried 
‘about with the Winds, for the gradual, equal, and 
‘seasonable watering of most Countries? And in 
‘those which have less Rain, how abundantly is the 
‘want of that supplied with noble Rivers?’ 

Even the subterraneous Caverns have their Uses. 
And so have the Ignivomous Mountains: Those terrible 
things are Spiracles, to vent the Vapours, which else 
might make a dismal Havock. Dr. Woodward observes, 
That tho Places which are very subject unto Larth- 
quakes usually have these Volcano’s, yet without these 
fiery Vents their Earthquakes would bring more tremen- 
dous Desolations upon them. 

Those two flammivomous Mountains, Vesuvius and 
4Stna, have sometimes terrified the whole World with 
their tremendous Eruptions. Vesuvius transmitted its 
frightful Cinders as far as Constantinople, which obliged 
the Emperor to leave the City; and Historians tell us 


298 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


there was kept an Anniversary Commemoration of it. 
Kircher has given us a Chronicle of what furious things 
have been done by ina; the melted Matter which 
one time it poured forth, spreading in breadth six 
Miles, ran down as far as Catanea,' and forced a Passage 
into the Sea. 

Asia abounds in these Volcano’s. Africa is known 
to have eight at least. In America ’tis affirmed that 
there are not less than fifteen, among that vast Chain 
of Mountains called the Andes. One says, ‘Nature 
‘seems here to keep house under ground, and the 
‘Hollows of the Mountains to be the Funnels or Chim- 
‘neys, by which the fuliginous Matter of those ever- 
lasting Fires ascends.’ 

The North too, that seems doom’d unto eternal Cold, 
has its famous Hecla. And Bartholomew Zenet? found 
one in Greenland, yet nearer to the Pole; the Effects 
whereof are very surprizing. 

A reasonable and religious Mind cannot behold 
these formidable Mountains, without some Reflections 
of this importance: Great GOD, who knows the Power 
of thine Anger? Or what can stand before the powerful 
Indignation of that God, who can kindle a Fire in his 
Anger that shall burn to the lowest Hell, and set on fire 
the Foundations of the Mountains! 

The Volcano’s would lead us to consider the Earth- 
quakes, wherein the Earth often suffers violent, and 
sometimes very destructive Concussions. 

The History of Earthquakes would be a large, as well 
as a sad Volume. Whether a Colluctation® of Minerals 


4 Catania: 

2 Possibly a reference to Nicolo Zeno, who, in the 14th century is 
said to have gone to Greenland, and to have discovered a volcano 
there. 3 Conflict. 


OF THE EARTH 299 


in the Bowels of the Earth is the cause of those direful 
Convulsions, may be considered: As we know a Com- 
position of Gold which Aqua Regia has dissolved; Sal 
Armoniack, and Salt of Tartar, set on fire, will with 
an horrible crack break thro all that is in the way. 
But Mankind ought herein to tremble before the Justice 
of God. Particular Cities and Countries, what fear- 
ful Desolations have been by Earthquakes brought 
upon them! 

The old sinking of Helice and Buris, absorbed by 
Earthquakes into the Sea, mention’d by Ovid, or the 
twelve Cities that were so swallow’d up in the Days 
of Tiberius, are small things to what Earthquakes are 
to do on our Globe; yea, have already done. I know 
not what we shall think of the huge Atlantis, men- 
tioned by Plato, now at the bottom of the Atlantick 
Ocean: But I know Varenius thinks it probable, that 
the Northern Part of America was joined unto Ireland, 
till Earthquakes made the vast and amazing Separa- 
tion. Others have thought so of England and France; 
of Spain and Africa; of Italy and Sicily. 

Ah, Sicily! Art thou come to be spoken of? No 
longer ago than t’other day what a rueful Spectacle 
was there exhibited in the Island of Sicily by an Earth- 
quake,’ in which there perished the best part of two 
hundred thousand Souls! 

Yea, Ammianus Marcellinus tells us, in the Year 365, 
Horrendi Tremores per omnem Orbis Ambitum grassati 
sunt.” 

O Inhabitants of the Earth, how much ought you to 
fear the things that will bring you into ill Terms with 
the Glorious GOD! Fear, lest the Pit and the Snare 


1 Probably the earthquakes in January, 1693. 
2 “Fearful shakings went through all the surface of the earth.” 


300 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


be upon you! Against all other Strokes there may some 
Defence or other be thought on: There is none against 
an Earthquake! It says, Tho they hide in the top of 
Carmel, J will find them there! 

But surely the Earthquakes | have met with will 
effectually instruct me to avoid the Folly of setting my 
Heart inordinately on any Earthly Possessions or En- 
joyments. Methinks I hear Heaven saying Surely he 
will receive this Instruction! 

A modern Philosopher speaks at this rate, “We do 
‘not know when and where we stand upon good Ground: 
‘It would amaze the stoutest Heart, and make him 
‘ready to die with Fear, if he could see into the sub- 
‘terraneous World, and view the dark Recesses of Nature 
‘under ground; and behold, that even the strongest 
‘of our Piles of Building, whose Foundation we think 
‘is laid firm and fast, yet are set upon an Arch or 
‘Bridge, made by the bending Parts of the Earth one 
‘upon another, over a prodigious Vault, at the bottom 
“of which there lies an unfathomable Sea, but its upper 
‘Hollows are filled with stagnating Air, and with Ex- 
‘pirations of sulphureous and bituminous Matter. 
‘Upon such a dreadful Abyss we walk, and ride, and 
“sleep; and are sustained only by an arched Roof, which 
“also is not in all places of an equal Thickness.’ 

Give me leave to say, I take Earthquakes to be very 
moving Preachers unto worldly-minded Men: Their 
Address may be very agreeably put into the Terms of 
the Prophet; O Earth, Earth, Earth, hear the Word of 
the Lord! 

‘Chrysostom did well, among his other Epithets, to 
‘call the Earth our Table; but it shall teach me as 
‘well as feed me: May I be a Deipnosophist! upon it. 


1“ A master of the art of dining.” 


OF THE EARTH 301 


‘Indeed, what is the Earth but a Theatre, as has 
‘been long since observed? Jn quo Infinita & I[llustria, 
‘Providentia, Bonitatis, Potentie ac Sapientie Divine 
Spectacula contemplanda!' But I must not forget that 
‘this Earth is very shortly to be my sleeping-place; it 
has a Grave waiting for me: I will not fear to go down, 
‘for thou hast promised, O my Saviour, to bring me up 
¢ = >] 
again. 


APPEN DIX. 


g. Aving arrived thus far, I will here make 
a Pause, and acknowledge the Shine of 
Heaven on our Parts of the Earth, in the 

Improvements of our modern Philosophy. 

To render us the more sensible hereof, we will propose 
a few Points of the Mahometan Philosophy, or Secrets 
reveal’d unto Mahomet, which none of his Followers, 
who cover so much of the Earth at this Day, may dare 
to question. 

The Winds; ’tis an Angel moving his Wings that 
raises them. 

The Flux and Reflux of the Sea, is caused by an 
Angel’s putting his Foot on the middle of the Ocean, 
which compressing the Waves, the Waters run to the 
Shores; but being removed, they retire into their 
proper Station. 

Falling Stars are the Firebrands with which the good 
Angels drive away the bad, when they are too saucily 
inquisitive, and approach too near the Verge of the 
Heavens, to eves-drop the Secrets there. 

Thunder is nothing else but the cracking of an Angel's 

1 “Tn which are to be contemplated infinite and glorious spectacles 
of the Divine providence, goodness, power, and wisdom.” 


302 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


Whip, while he slashes the dull Clouds into such and 
such places, when they want Rains to fertilize the Earth. 

Eclipses are made thus: The Sun and Moon are shut 
in a Pipe, which is turned up and down; from each 
Pipe is a Window, by which they enlighten the World; 
but when God is angry at the Inhabitants of it for 
their Transgressions, He bids an Angel clap to the 
Window, and so turn the Light towards Heaven from 
the Earth: for this Occasion Forms of Prayer are 
left, that the Almighty would avert his Judgments, 
and restore Light unto the World. 

The thick-skull’d Prophet sets another Angel at 
work for Earthquakes; he is to hold so many Ropes 
tied unto every Quarter of the Globe, and when he is 
commanded, he is to pull; so he shakes that part of 
the Globe: and if a City, or Mountain, or Tower, is 
to be overturned, then he tugs harder at the Pulley, 
till the Rivers dance, and the Valleys are filled with 
Rubbish, and the Waters are swallowed up in the 
Precipices. 

May our Devotion exceed the Mahometan as much as 
our Philosophy! 


ESSAY XXIV. Of Macnetism. 


Macnetism of the Earth. A Principle very dif- 
ferent from that of Gravity. 

The Operations of this amazing Principle, are princi- 
pally discovered in the communion that Jon has 
with the Loadstone; a rough, coarse, unsightly Stone, 
but of more Value than all the Diamonds and Jewels 
in the Universe. 


G i an unaccountable thing there is as the 


OF MAGNETISM 303 


It is observed by Sturmius, That the attractive 
Quality of the Magnet was known to the Antients, even 
beyond all History. Indeed, besides what Pliny says 
of it, Aristotle speaks of Thales, as having said, the 
Stone has a Soul, 6tt Tov ovdnpov Kivel’ because it moves 
Tron. 

It was Roger Bacon who first of all discovered the 
Verticity of the Magnet, or its Property of pointing to- 
wards the Pole, about four hundred Years ago. 

The Communication of its Vertue to Jron was first 
of all discovered by the Jtalians. One Gora first lit up- 
on the Use of the Mariner’s Compass, about A. C. 1300. 
After this, the various Declination of the Needle under 
different Meridians, was discovered by Cabot and Nor- 
man. And then the Variation of the Declination, so 
as to be not always the same in one and the same 
place, by Hevelius, Auzot, Volckamer, and others.’ 

The inquisitive Mr. Derham says, The Variation of 
the Variation was first found out by our Gellibrand, 
A. Cp 1634. 

And he himself has added a further Discovery; 
That as the Common Needle is continually varying 
towards the East and West, so the Dipping Needle varies 
up and down, towards the Zenith, or fromwards, with 
a magnetick Tendency, describing a Circle round the 
Pole of the World, or some other Point; a Circle, 
whereof the Radius is about 13 Degrees. 

In every Magnet there are two Poles, the one pointing 
to the North, and the other to the South. 

The Poles, in divers Parts of the Globe, are diversly 
inclined towards the Center of the Earth. 


1 All three of these scientists had communicated papers to the 
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, whence Mather 
draws much of his material about magnets. 


304 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


These Poles, tho contrary to one another, do mu- 
tually help towards the Magnet’s Attraction, and sus- 
pension of ron. 

If a Stone be cut or broke into ever so many pieces, 
there are these two Poles in each of the pueces. 

If two Magnets are spherical, one will conform itself 
to the other, so as either of them would do to the 
Earth; and after they have so turned themselves, 
they will endeavour to approach each other: but 
placed in a contrary Position, they avoid each other. 

If a Magnet be cut thro the Axis, the Segments of 
the Stone, which before were joined, will now avoid 
and fly each other. 

If the Magnet be cut by a Section perpendicular to 
its Axis, the two Points, which before were conjoined, 
will become contrary Poles; one in one, t’other in t’other 
Segment. 

Iron receives Vertue from the Magnet, by application 
to it, or barely from an approach near it, tho it do not 
touch it; and the Jron receives this Vertue variously, 
according to the Parts of the Stone it is made to 
approach to. 

The Magnet loses none of its own Vertue by com- 
municating any to the Jron. ‘This Vertue it also com- 
municates very speedily; tho the longer the Jron joins 
the Stone, the longer its communicated Vertue will 
hold. And the better the Magnet, the sooner and 
stronger the communicated Vertue. 

Steel receives Vertue from the Magnet better than 
Iron. 

A Needle touch’d by a Magnet, will turn its Ends 
the same way towards the Poles of the World as the 
Magnet will do it. But neither of them conform their 
Poles exactly to those of the World; they have usually 


OF MAGNETISM 305 


some Variation, and this Variation too in the same 
place is not always the same. 

A Magnet will take up much more Jron when arm’d 
or cap’d than it can alone. And if the Iron Ring be 
suspended by the Stone, yet the magnetical Particles 
do not hinder the Ring from turning round any way, 
to the Right or Left. 

The best Magnet, at the least distance from a lesser 
or a weaker, cannot draw to it a piece of Iron adhering 
actually to a much weaker or lesser Stone; but if it 
come to touch it, it can draw it from the other. But 
a weaker Magnet, or even a little piece of Iron, can 
draw away or separate a piece of Jron contiguous to a 
better and greater Magnet. 

In our Northern Parts of the World, the South Pole 
of a Loadstone will raise more Iron than the North Pole. 

A Plate of Iron only, but no other Body interposed, 
can impede the Operation of the Loadstone, either as to 
its attractive or directive Quality. 

The Power and Vertue of the Loadstone may be 1m- 
pair’d by lying long in a wrong posture, as also by 
Rust, and Wet, and the like. 

A Magnet heated red-hot, will be speedily deprived 
of its attractive Quality; then cooled, either with the 
South Pole to the North, in an horizontal position, or 
with the South Pole to the Earth in a perpendicular, it 
will change its Polarity; the Southern Pole becoming the 
Northern, and vice versa. 

By applying the Poles of a very small Fragment of a 
Magnet to the opposite vigorous ones of a larger, the 
Poles of the Fragment have been speedily changed. 

Well temper’d and harden’d Iron Tools, heated by 
Attrition, will attract Filings of Iron and Steel. 

The Iron Bars of Windows, which have stood long 


306 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


in an erect position, do grow permanently magnetical; 
the lower ends of such Bars being the Northern Poles, 
and the upper the Southern. 

Mr. Boyle found English Oker, heated red-hot, and 
cooled in a proper posture, plainly to gain a magnetick 
Power. 

The illustrious Mr. Boyle, and the inquisitive Mr. 
Derham, have carried on their Experiments, till we 
are overwhelmed with the Wonders, as well as with 
the Numbers of them. 

That of Mr. Derham, and Grimaldi, That a piece 
of well-touch! Iron Wire, upon being bent round in a 
Ring, or coiled round upon a Stick, loses its Verticity; 
is very admirable. 

The Strength of some Loadstones is very surprizing. 

Dr. Lister? saw a Collection of Loadstones, one of 
them weighed naked not above a Dram, yet it would 
raise a Dram and half of Iron; but being shod, it would 
raise one hundred and forty and four Drams. A smooth 
Loadstone, weighing 65 Grains, drew up 14 Ounces; that 
is, 144 times its own weight. A Loadstone that was 
no bigger than an Hazel-nut, fetch’d up an huge bunch 
of Keys. 

The Effluvia of a Loadstone seem to work in a Circle. 
What flows from the North Pole, comes round, and 
enters the South Pole; and what flows from the South 
Pole, enters the North Pole. 

Tho a minute Loadstone may have a prodigious 
force, yet it 1s very strange to see what a short Sphere 
of Activity it has; it affects not the Jron sensibly above 
an Inch or two, and the biggest little more than a 


1 Probably a misprint for “ well-touched,” 7. ¢., well magnetized. 
2 Dr. Martin Lister, 1638?-1712, published in 1698 an account of 
his travels. 





OF MAGNETISM 307 


Foot or two. The magnetick Effluvia make haste to 
return to the Stone that emitted them, and seem afraid 
of leaving it, as a Child the Mother before it can go 
alone. 

On that astonishing Subject, The Variation of the 

Compass, what if we should hear the acute Mr. Halley’s ' 
_ Proposals? 
He proposes, That our whole Globe should be looked 

upon as a great Magnet, having four magnetical Poles, 
or Points of Attraction, two near each Pole of the 
Equator. In those Parts of the World which lie near 
adjacent unto any one of these magnetical Poles, the 
Needle is governed by it; the nearer Pole being always 
predominant over the remoter. The Pole which at 
present is nearest unto Britain, lies in or near the 
Meridian of the Lands-end of England, and not above 
seven Degrees from the Artick Pole. By this Pole 
the Variations in all Europe, and in Tartary, and in the 
North Sea, are principally governed, tho’ with some 
regard to the other Northern Pole, which is in a Meridian 
passing about the middle of Calefornia,? and about 
fifteen-Degrees from the North Pole of the World. To 
this the Needle pays its chief respect in all the North 
_ America, and in the two Oceans on either side, even 
from the Azores Westward, unto Japan, and further. 
The two Southern Poles are distant rather further from 
the South Pole of the World; the one is about sixteen 
Degrees therefrom, and is under a Meridian about 
twenty Degrees to the Westward of the Magellanick 


1Edmund Halley, the astronomer, 1656-1742, communicated 
to the Royal Society an article on “a theory of the variation of the 
magnetical compass,” printed in the Society’s Philosophical Trans- 
actions, vol. xill. 

? I. ¢., the old Mexican province of California. 


308 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


Streights; this commands the Needle in all the South 
America, in the Pacifick Sea, and in the greatest part of 
the Ethiopick Ocean. The fourth and last Pole seems 
to have the greatest Power and the largest Dominions 
of all, as it is the most remote from the Pole of the 
World; for ’tis near twenty Degrees from it, in the 
Meridian which passes thro Hollandia Nova, and the 
Island Celebes. This Pole has the mastery in the South 
part of Africa, in Arabia, and the Red Sea, in Persia, 
in India, and its Islands, and all over the Indian Sea, 
from the Cape of Good Hope Eastwards, to the middle 
of the great South Sea, which d vides Asia from America. 

Behold, the Disposition of the magnetical Vertue, 
as It is throughout the whole Globe of the Earth at this 
day! 

But now to solve the Phenomena! 

We may reckon the external Parts of our Globe as 
a Shell, the internal as a Nucleus, or an inner Globe 
included within ours; and between these a fluid Medium, 
which having the same common Center and Axis of 
diurnal Rotation, may turn about with our Earth every 
four and twenty Hours: only this outer Sphere having 
its turbinating Motion some small matter either swifter 
or slower than the internal Ball, and a very small 
difference becoming in length of Time sensible by many 
Repetitions; the internal Parts will by degrees recede 
from the external, and not keeping pace with one 
another, will appear gradually to move, either East- 
wards or Westwards, by the difference of their Motions. 
Now if the exterior Shell of our Globe should be a 
Magnet, having its Poles at a distance from the Poles 
of diurnal Rotation; and if the internal Nucleus be 
likewise a Magnet, having its Poles in two other places, 
distant also from the Axis, and these latter, by a slow 


OF MAGNETISM 309 


and gradual Motion, change their place in respect of 
the external, we may then give a reasonable account 
of the four magnetical Poles, and of the Changes of the 
Needle’s Variations. Who can tell but the final Cause 
of the Admixture of the magnetical Matter in the Mass 
of the terrestrial Parts of our Globe, should be to main- 
tain the concave Arch of this our Shell? Yea, we may 
suppose the Arch lined with a magnetical Matter, or to 
be rather one great concave Magnet, whose two Poles 
are fixed in the Surface of our Globe? Sir Isaac Newton 
has demonstrated the Moon to be more solid than our 
Earth, as nine to five; why may we not then suppose 
four Ninths of our Globe to be Cavity? Mr. Halley 
allows there may be Inhabitants of the lower Story, 
and many ways of producing Light for them. ‘The 
Medium itself may be always luminous; or the concave 
Arch may shine with such a Substance as does invest 
the Surface of the Sun; or they may have peculiar 
Luminaries, whereof we can have no Idea: As Virgil 
and Claudian enlighten their Elysian Fields; the latter, 


Amissum ne crede Diem; sunt altera nobis 
Sydera; sunt Orbes alii; Lumenque videbis 
Purius, Elysiumque magis mirabere Solem.* 


The Diameter of the Earth being about eight thou- 
sand English Miles, how easy ’tis to allow five hundred 
Miles for the Thickness of the Shell! And another 
five hundred Miles for a Medium capable of a vast 
Atmosphere, for the Globe contained within it! 
But it’s time to stop, we are got beyond Human Pene- 





1“Do not suppose that light is lost; there are other stars for us, 
and other courses, and you shall see a clearer light and wonder at 
the sun of Elysium.” 


310 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


tration; we have dug as far as ’tis fit any Conjecture 
should carry us! 

It is a little surprizing that the Orb of the Activity 
of Magnets, as Mr. Derham observes, 1s larger or lesser 
at different times. There is a noble and a mighty 
Loadstone reserved in the Repository at Gresham- 
College, which will keep a Key, or other piece of Jron, 
suspended unto another, sometimes at the distance of 
eight or ten Foot from it, but at other times not 
above four. 

[A Digression, if worthy to be called so]] 

§. But is it possible for me to go any further without 
making an Observation, which indeed would ever now 
and then break in upon us as we go along? 

Once for all; Gentlemen Philosophers, The MAGNET 
has quite puzzled you. It shall then be no indecent 
Anticipation of what should have been observed at the 
Conclusion of this Collection, here to demand it of 
you, that you glorify the infinite Creator of this, and 
of all things, as incomprehensible. You must acknowl- 
edge that Human Reason is too feeble, too narrow a 
thing to comprehend the infinite God. The Words 
of our excellent Boyle deserve to be recited on this 
Occasion: ‘Such is the natural Imbecillity of the Human 
‘Intellect, that the most piercing Wits and excellent 
‘Mathematicians are forced to confess, that not only 
‘their own Reason, but that of Mankind, may be 
‘puzzled and nonplus’d about Quantity, which 
‘is an Object of Contemplation natural, nay, mathe- 
‘matical. Wherefore why should we think it unfit 
‘to be believed, and to be acknowledged, that in the 
‘Attributes of God [it may be added, and in His Dis- 
“pensations towards the Children of Men] there should be 
“some things which our finite Understandings cannot 


OF MAGNETISM 311 


‘clearly comprehend? And we who cannot clearly 
‘comprehend how in ourselves two such distant Na- 
‘tures, as that of a gross Body and an immaterial Spirit 
‘should be so united as to make up one Man, why 
‘should we grudge to have our REAson Pupil to an 
‘omniscient Instructor, who can teach us such things, 
‘as neither our own mere Reason, nor any others, 
‘could ever have discovered to us?’ 

I will now single out a few plain Mathematical In- 
stances wherein, Sirs, you will find your finest Reason so 
transcended, and so confounded, that it is to be hoped 
a profound Humility in the grand Affairs of our holy 
Religion will from this time for ever adorn you. 

Mr. Robert Jenkin’ discoursing on the Reasonableness 
of the Christian Religion, gives two Instances how much 
we may lose ourselves in the Speculation of material 
things. 

First, Nothing seems more evident, than that all 
Matter is divisible; yea, the least Particle of Matter 
must be so, because it has the Nature and Essence of 
Matter: it can never be so divided that it shall cease to 
be Matter. But then, on the other side, it is plain, 
Matter cannot be infinitely divisible; because whatever 
is divisible, is divisible into Parts; and no Parts can be 
infinite, because no Number can be so. A numberless 
Number is a Contradiction; all Parts are capable of 
being numbred; they are more or fewer, odd or even. It 
is not enough to say, that Matter is only capable of 
such a Division, but never can be actually divided tnto 
infinite Parts; for the Parts into which it is divisible 
must be actually existent, tho they be not actually divided. 
And last of all to say, these Parts of Matter are indef- 


1 Robert Jenkin, 1656-1727, master of St. John’s College, Cam- 
bridge. 


312 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


inite, but not infinite, is only to confess we know not 
what to say. 

Secondly, We all agree that all the Parts into which 
the Whole is divided, being taken together are equal to 
the Whole. But it seems any single Part is equal to the 
Whole. Itis granted, that in any Circle a Line may be 
drawn from every Point of the Circumference to the 
Center. Suppose the Circle to be the Equator, and a 
million lesser Circles are drawn within the Equator, 
about the same Center, and then a right Line drawn 
from every Point of the Equator to the Center of the 
Globe; every such right Line drawn from the Equator 
to the Center, must of necessity cut thro the million 
lesser Circles, about the same Center: consequently there 
must be the same number of Points in a Circle a million 
of times less than the Equator, as there is in the Equator 
itself. The lesser Circles may be multiplied into as 
many as there are Points in the Diameters; and 
so the least Circle imaginable may have as many Points 
as the greatest; that is, be as big as the greatest, as 
big as one that is millions of times as big as itself. 

Yet more; What will you say to this? Let a Radius 
be moved as a Radius upon a Circle; ’tis a Case of 
Dr. Grew’s proposing: whether we suppose it wholly 
moved, or but in part, the Supposition will bring us 
to an Absurdity; if it be in a part movent,! and in a 
part quiescent, it will be a curve Line, and no Radius; 
if it be wholly movent, then it moves either about or 
upon the Center; if it moves about it, it then comes 
short of it, and so again is no Radius: it cannot move 
upon it, because all motion having parts, there can be 
no motion upon a Poznt. 

More yet; We cannot conceive how the Perimeter 

1 Moving. 


OF MAGNETISM 313 


of a Circle, or other curve Figure, can consist without 
being infinitely angular; for the parts of a Line are 
Lines: But we cannot conceive how those Lines can 
have, as here they have, a different direction, and there- 
fore an inclination, without making an Angle. And yet if 
you suppose a Circle to be angular, you destroy the 
Definition of a Circle, and the Theorems depending on it. 

Once more; I will offer a Case of my own. The 
Line on which I am now writing is a Space between 
‘vo Points; it will be doubtless allowed me, that my 
Pen in passing over this Line, from the one point unto 
the other, must pass over the half of the Line before 1t 
passes over the whole; and so the half of the remaining 
half, and so the half of the quarter that remains: so 
still the half of the remaining space, the half before the 
whole; and yet when it comes to execution, you find 
‘t is not so. If the Position you allowed me had been 
true, my Pen would not have reach’d unto the end of 
the Line before the End of my Life; or in a Term 
wherein it might have written ten Books as big as old 
Zoroaster’s, or more Manuscripts than ever were in 
the Alexandrian Library. 

It is then evident, that all Mankind is to this day 
‘n the dark as to the ultimate Parts of Quantity, and of 
Motion. 

Go on my learned Grew, and maintain [who more 
fit than one of thy recondite Learning?] that there is 
hardly any one thing in the World, the Essence whereof 
we can perfectly comprehend. But then to the natural 
Imbecillity of Reason, add the moral Depravations of 
it, by our Fall from God, and the Ascendant which a 
corrupt and vicious Will has obtain’d over it, how much 
ought this Consideration to warn us against the Conduct 
of an unhumbled Understanding in things relating to the 


314 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


Kingdom of God? I am not out of my way, I have had 
a Magnet all this while steering of this Digression: I 
am now returning to that. 

§]. God forbid I should be, Tam Lapis ut Lapidi 
Numen inesse putem.’ To fall down before a Stone, 
and say, Thou art a God, would be an Idolatry, that none 
but a Soul more senseless than a Stone could be guilty 
of. But then it would be a very agreeable and ac- 
ceptable Homage unto the Glorious GOD, for me to 
see much of Him-in such a wonderful Stone as the 
Macnet. They have done well to call it the Loadstone, 
that is to say, the Lead-stone: May it lead me unto 
Thee, O my God and my Saviour! Magnetism is in this 
like to Gravity, that it leads us to GOD, and brings us 
very near to Him. When we see Magnetism in its 
Operation, we must say, This is the Work of God! 
And of the Stone, which has proved of such vast use in 
the Affairs of the Waters that cover the Sea, and will 
eer long do its part in bringing it about that the Glory 
of the Lord shall cover the Earth, we must say, Great God, 
this 1s a wonderful Gift of Thine unto the World! 

I do not propose to exemplify the occasional Reflections 
which a devout Mind may make upon all the Creatures 
of God, their Properties, and Actions, and Relations; 
the Libri Elephantini? would not be big enough to 
contain the thousandth part of them. If it were law- 
ful for me here to pause with a particular Exercise upon 
the Loadstone, my first Thoughts would be those of the 


1 “Such a stone as to think that there is in a stone any divine 
authority.” 

* The elephantine books were made up of ivory tablets on which 
were kept certain governmental records of the ancient Romans. 
“Elephantine” means “made of ivory” but Mather takes it here as 
referring to “elephantine”’ size. 


OF MAGNETISM 315 


holy Scudder,' whose Words have had a great Impression 
on me ever since my first reading of them in my Child- 
hood: ‘An upright Man is like a Needle touch’d with 
‘the Loadstone; tho he may thro boisterous Temptations 
‘and strong Allurements oftentimes look towards the 
‘Pleasure, Gain and Glory of this present World, yet 
‘because he is truly touch’d with the sanctifying Spirit 
‘of God, he still inclineth God-ward, and hath no Quiet 
‘till he stand steady towards Heaven.’ However, to 
animate the Devotion of my Christian Philosopher, I 
will here make a Report to him. The ingenious Ward 
wrote a pious Book, as long ago as the Year 1639, 
entitled, Magnetis Reductorium Theologicum.? ‘The 
Design of his Essay, is, to lead us from the Considera- 
tion of the Loadstone, to the Consideration of our 
Saviour, and of his incomparable Glories; whereof | 
the Magnet has in it a notable Adumbration. In his 
Introduction he has a Note, worthy to be transcribed 
here, as religiously asserting the Design, of which our 
whole Essay is a Prosecution. Hic precipuus 9 poten- 
tissimus Creaturarum omnium Finis est, cum Scale nobis 
‘f Ale fiunt, quibus Anime nostrae supra Dumeta 9 
Sterquilinia Mundi hujus volitantes, facilius ad Celum 
ascendunt, t9 ad Deum Creatorem aspirant.® For what is 
now before us, if our Ward may be our Adviser; Chris- 
tian, in the Loadstone drawing and lifting up the fron, 
behold thy Saviour drawing us to himself, and raising 





1 Henry Scudder, divine and writer, who died about 1659. 

2 Samuel Ward, who died in 1643, was the brother of Nathaniel 
Ward, who wrote in New England the famous Simple Cobler of 
Aggawamm. 

3“This is the special and most important end of all creatures, 
since stairs and wings are made for us, by which our souls, flying 
above the thorn-bushes and dunghills of this world, may ascend 
to Heaven and aspire toward God the Creator.” 


316 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


us above the secular Cares and Snares that ruin us. 
In its ready communication of its Vertues, behold a 
shadow of thy Saviour communicating his holy Spirit 
to his chosen People; and his Ministers more particu- 
larly made Partakers of his attractive Powers. When 
Silver and Gold are neglected by the Loadstone, but 
coarse Iron preferred, behold thy Saviour passing over 
the Angelical World, and chusing to take our Nature 
upon him. The Jron is also undistinguished, whether 
it be lodged in a fine Covering, or whether it be lying 
in the most squalid and wretched Circumstances; 
which invites us to think how little respect of Persons 
there is with our Saviour. However, the Iron should 
be cleansed, it should not be rusty; nor will our Saviour 
embrace those who are not so far cleansed, that they 
are at least willing to be made clean, and have his Files 
pass upon them. The /rom is at first merely passive, then 
it moves more feebly towards the Stone; anon upon 
Contact it will fly to it, and express a marvellous 
Affection and Adherence. Is not here a Picture of the 
Dispositions in our Souls towards our Saviour? It is 
the Pleasure of our Saviour to work by Instruments, 
as the Loadstone will do most when the Mediation of a 
Steel Cap is used about it. After all, whatever is done, 
the whole Praise is due to the Loadstone alone. But 
there would be no end, and indeed there should be 
none, of these Meditations! Our Ward in his Dedi- 
cation of his Book to the King, has one very true 
Compliment. Hoc ausim Majestati tue bona fide 
spondere; si unicus unicum possideres, Mundi totius te 


facile Monarcham efficeret.1 But what a Great KING 


1“ This I might venture to promise in good faith to your Majesty: 
that if you alone possessed the only magnet, you might easily make 
yourself ruler of the whole world.” 





OF MINERALS 317 


is He, who is the Owner, yea, and the Maker of all the 
Magnets in the World! JI am a Great KING, saith the 
Lord of Hosts, and my Name 1s to be feared among the 
Nations! May the Loadstone help to carry it to them. 


ESSAY XXV. Of MINERALS. 


() i UM Dei Cognitionem (says my dear Arndt) 


quilibet ex sincero erga Deum amore © 

gratitudine sibt acquirere studeat, ut sciat, que 
Deus nostri causa creaverit.1 He smiles at the trifling 
Logicians, who, totam etatem inter inanes Subtilitates 
transigentes,” wholly taken up with Trifles, overlook the 
glorious Works of God. 

Our Earth is richly furnished with a Tribe of Minerals, 
called so because dug out of Mines; and because dug, 
therefore also called Fossils. Many things to be written 
of these, ought to have a Nimok * in the Margin! 

The adventitious Fossils, which are but the Exuvie 
of Animals have been erroneously thought a sort of 
peculiar Stones. These must be excluded. 

But then the Natives of the Earth are to be found in 
a vast variety. The inquisitive Dr. Woodward? has 
prepared us a noble Table of them. 


4 


1 “Tet everyone seek to acquire knowledge of the works of God, 
out of a true love and gratitude toward Him, in order to know what 
He created on our account.” 

2 “Spending all their time in trifling subtleties.” 

3 Mather’s “Nimok,” is probably a misprint for Nichols. To read 
“ch”? as “m” and “Is” as “k” is easy, in his handwriting. Thomas 
Nichols, who flourished about 1650, wrote three books on gems and 
precious stones. 

4“ Parts sloughed off.” 

5 John Woodward, geologist and physician, published in 1695 his 
Essay toward a Natural History of the Larth, 


318 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


There are near twenty several sorts of Earth. Of 
these, besides the Potter’s Earth, and the Fuller’s Earth, 
how exceedingly useful is the Chalk to us! ’Tis a 
TokuypnaToy,} 

There are above a dozen several sorts of Stones, 
that are found in larger Masses. 

What Vessels, what Buildings, what Ornaments, do 
these afford us; especially the Slate, the Marble, the 
Free-stone, and the Lime-stone? 

How helpful the Warming-stone? 

How needful the Grind-stone and Mill-stone? 

To the Service of our Maker we have so many Calls 
from the Stones themselves, [for if Men should be 
silent at proclaiming the Glory of God, the very Stones 
would speak] that a learned and a pious German so 
addresses us: Audis tibi loquentes Lapides; tu ne sis 
Lapis in hac parte, sed ipsorum Vocem audi, &9 in illis 
Vocem Dei.? 

The Whetstone gives me a particular Admonition, 
which I have somewhere met with: Multi multa docent 
alios, qu@ ipst prestare nequeunt.s The worst Motto for 
a Divine that can be! Lord, save me from it! 

How astonishing the Figures, which Dr. Robinson 
and Mr. Ray report, as naturally delineated upon several 
kinds of Stones; almost every thing in Nature described 
in them, so as could not be out-done by any Sculptor 
or Painter! The Colaptice,4 such as no Human Shill 
could arise to! 


1 “Something useful in many ways.” 

2“You hear the stones speaking; be not a stone but hear their 
voice and in them the voice of God.” 

8 “Many teach much to others, which they themselves can not do 
well.” 

4 Carving. 


OF MINERALS 319 


Yea, in Stones there has been sometimes found so 
much of an Human Shape, that every thing really in it 
has been astonished at it. Zeiler and Kircher mention 
some famous Rocks, which so resemble Monks, that all 
People call them so. Olaus Wormius was Possessor of 
a large Stone, which had exactly the Head, Face, Neck 
and Shoulders of a Man. Monconnys and others relate 
the several Parts of a Man, which many Stones have 
exactly exhibited.1_ Oh! how happy we, 1f Men and Stones 
had less Resemblance! 

There are many sorts of Stones found in lesser Masses. 

Of these there are many who do not exceed the 
hardness of Marble. 

Seven or eight of these are of an indeterminate Figure. 

Twice as many have a determinate Figure. 

Among these the Wonders of the Osteo-colla, to join 
and heal our broken Brones [sic]. 

But then there are others which do exceed Marble 
in hardness. 

To this Article belong those that are usually called 
Gems or precious Stones. 

(Pebbles and Flints are of the 4 gate-kind.| 

Some of these are opake. 

Three of the opake have a Body of one Colour. 

Here the Wonders of the Nephritick Stone! 

Three of the opake have different Colours mixed in the 
same Body. 

Here the Wonders of the Blood-stone! 

Some are pellucid. 


1Qlaus Worm (Wormius), 1588-1654, was a Danish physician. 
Balthasar de Monconys, 1611-1665, was a French traveller to the 
Orient. Martin Zeiller was a German geographer, and writer of 
books of travel in the 17th century. Kircher is probably Athanasius 
Kircher, 1602-1680, German antiquary and writer. 


320 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


Two with Colours changeable, according to their dif- 
ferent position in the Light. 

Nine or ten with Colours permanent. 

Some are diaphanous. 

Two yellow (or partaking of it.) 

Three red. 

Three blue. 

Two green. 

Four without any Colours. 

‘But an excellent Writer observing, Deus est Figu- 
‘lus Lapidum,} carries on his Observation, That the 
“God who makes precious as well as common Stones, has 
‘made Men with as much of a Difference, and not al- 
“together without such a Proportion.’ 

‘Good God, Thy heavenly Graces in the Soul are brighter 
‘ Jewels than any that are dug out of the Earth! A poor 
“Man may be adorn’d with these; those who are so, 
‘they shall be mine, saith the Lord, in the Day when I 
“make up my Jewels.’ 

‘How often have I seen a Jewel in the Snout of a 
‘Swine! 

‘And how many Counterfeits in the World!’ 

There are seven sorts of Salts to be met withal. 

But the Salt of our Table, of how much consequence 
this to us! The Uses of it are too many to be by any 
reckoned: Very many are well known to all. To 
which add the Experience which Bickerus affirms the 
Army of the Emperor Charles V. had, that they must 
have perish’d on the African Shore, if they had not 
found a Grain of Salt in their Mouths; an Antidote 
not only against Thirst, but Hunger too. 

He deserves to be herded with the Creatures, which 


1“ God is the potter who makes the stones.”’ 


OF MINERALS 321 


Animam habent pro Sale,’ who shall be so insipid an 
Animal, as to be insensible that the Benefits of Salt call 
for very great Acknowledgments. My God, save me 
from what would render me unsavory Salt! 

There are three liquid Bitumens, six or seven 
solid. 

There are about a dozen metallick Minerals. Mercury 
is one of these, but how astonishing an one! ‘The 
Particles whereof how small, how smooth, how solid! 
The Corpuscles of it have Diameters much less than 
those of dir; yea, than those of Water; and not much 
greater than those of Light itself! 

At last we come to Metals; Iron, with its Attendants; 
Tin, Lead, Copper, Silver and Gop. 

‘I shall not consider the Reasons which moved 
‘Cardan? to assert that Metals have a Soul; but I am 
‘sure that I myself have a Soul, and am one that is 
‘reasonable; if so, what can be more agreeable to me, 
‘than a Consideration which I find hinted by a curious 
‘Writer of natural Theology: We should admire the 
‘Munificence of one who would bestow a considerable 
‘Quantity of enriching Metals upon us. But then 
‘how much cause have we to adore the Munificence 
‘of our bountiful GOD, who has enrich’d us with 
‘Metals in so vast a Quantity, and with so much 
‘Profusion from His hidden Treasures! Quotusquisque 
‘est qui non videt, quid Ratio officti sur postulat?’* 

How amazingly serviceable is our Jron to us! In our 
mechanical Arts, in our Agriculture, in our Navigation, 
in our Architecture; in all, I say, all our Business! What 
a sordid Life do those Barbarians lead, who are kept 

1 “Have a desire for salt.” 


2 Girolamo Cardan, Italian philosopher and scientist, 1501-1576. 
3 “ How few are the men, who do not see what reason demands.” 


S22 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


ignorant of it! Unthankful for this, O Man, you deserve 
Heaven should become as /ron over you. 

It is from GOD that the Metals of most necessary 
Uses are the most plentiful; others that may be better 
spared, there is a rarity of them. 

That one single Metal, Iron, as Dr. Grew observes, 
it sets on foot above an hundred sorts of manual Oper- 
ations. 

Tho the Love of Money be the Root of all Evil, yet 
the ingenious Dr. Cockburn has discoursed very justly 
on the vast Importance whereof the Use of Money is to 
Mankind. And indeed where the Use of Money has 
not been introduced, Men are brutish and savage, and 
nothing that is good has been cultivated. 

There is a surprizing Providence of GOD in keeping 
up the Value of Gold and Silver, notwithstanding the 
vast Quantities dug out of the Earth in all Ages, ever 
since the Trade begun of effodiuntur Opes;! and so 
continuing them fit Materials to make Money of. 

Among the marvellous Qualities of Gold, its Ductility 
deserves to have a particular Notice taken of it. 

The Wire-drawers, to every 48 Ounces of Silver, 
allow one of Gold. Now two Yards of the superfine 
Wire weigh a Grain. In the Length of 98 Yards there 
are 49 Grains of Weight. A single Grain of Gold covers 
the said 98 Yards. The r1ooooth part of a Grain is 
above one third of an Inch long, which yet may be 
actually divided into ten; and so the 1oooooth part of 
a Grain of Gold may be visible without a Microscope. 

It is a marvellous thing that Gold, after it has been 
divided by corrosive Liquors into invisible Parts, yet 
may presently be so precipitated, as to appear in its 
own golden Form again. 

1“ Riches are dug,” 7. ¢., the trade of mining. 


tee, eae 


OF MINERALS a2 


But, as Dr. Grew observes, the same Immutability 
which belongs to the Composition of Gold, much more 
belongs to the Principles of Gold, and of all other 
Bodies, when their Composition is destroyed. Dampzter,' 
an ingenious Traveller all round the Globe, has an 
Observation; J know no Place where Gold 1s found, but 
what is very unhealthy. 

‘Possessor of Gold! Beware lest the Observation be 
‘verified in the unhealthy Influences of thy Gold upon 
‘thy Mind; and lest the Jove of it betray thee into 
‘many foolish and hurtful Lusts, which will drown thee 
‘in Destruction and Perdition.’ 

‘The Auri sacra Fames*is the worst of all Distempers.’ 

My God, I bless Thee; I know something that 15 better 
than fine Gold, something that cannot be gotten for Gold, 
neither shall Silver be weighed for the Price thereof. 

If Gold could speak, it would rebuke the [dolatry 
wherewith Mankind adores it, in much such Terms 
as I find a devout Writer assigning to it. Non Deus 
sum, sed Dei Creatura; Terra mtht Mater. Ego servio 
tibi, ut tu servias Creatori.® 

q. ‘Finally, The antient Pagans not only worshipped 
‘the Host of Heaven, [justly called Zabians]* but what- 
‘soever they found comfortable to Nature, they also 
‘deified, even, Quodcunque juvaret.© The River Nilus 
‘too must at length become a Deity; yea, Nascuntur 
‘in hortis Numina.’ ® 

1 William Dampier, 1652-1715, English voyager. 

2“ Accursed hunger for gold.” 

3“*T am not God, but a creature of God; the earth is my mother. 
I serve thee, that thou mayst serve the Creator.”’ 

4 Zabians, or Sabians, a religious sect. In erroneous use the name 
was applied to star-worshippers, as it is here. 


5 “Whatever was pleasing.” 
6 “Gods are born in gardens.” 


324 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


‘And according to Pliny, a Man that helps a Man 
‘becomes a God. 

‘God save us from the Crime stigmatiz’d by our 
“Apostle, to adore the Creatures more than the Creator! 
“By no means let us be as Philo speaks, Koopov paddov 
‘n KoopoTdLov Oavudoarvtes, more admiring the World, 
than the maker of the World,’ 

‘We will glorify the GOD who has bestowed things 
‘upon us; for the Silver 1s mine, and the Gold is mine, 


“saith the Lord of Hosts.’ 


ESSAY XXVI. Of the VEGETABLES. 


HE Contrivance of our most Glorious Creator, 
in the VEGETABLES growing upon this Globe, 
cannot be wisely observed without Admira- 

tion and Astonishment. 

We will single out some Remarkables, and glorify 
our GOD! 

First, In what manner is Vegetation performed? And 
how is the Growth of Plants and the Increase of their 
Parts carried on? The excellent and ingenious Dr. 
John Woodward* has, in the way of nice Experiment, 
brought this thing under a close Examination. It is 
evident that Water is necessary to Vegetation; there is 
a Water which ascends the Vessels of the Plants, much 
after the way of a Filtration; and the Plants take up a 
larger or lesser Quantity of this Fluid, according to 
their Dimensions. The much greater part of that 
fluid Mass which is conveyed to the Plants, does not 
abide there, but exhale thro them up into the Aimos- 


'. Cf. John Woodward’s “Some Thoughts and Experiments con- 
cerning Vegetation,” in Philosophical Transactions, vol. xxi. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 325 


phere. Hence Countries that abound with bigger Plants 
are obnoxious to greater Damps, and Rains, and 
inconvenient Humidities. But there is also a terrestrial 
Matter which is mixed with this Water, and ascends 
up into the Plants with the Water: Something of this 
Matter will attend Water in all its motions, and stick 
by it after all its Percolations. Indeed the Quantity 
of this terrestrial Matter, which the Vapours carry up 
into the Atmosphere, is very fine, and not very much, 
but it is the truest and the best prepared vegetable 
Matter; for which cause it is that Rain-water is of 
such a singular Fertility. *~Tis true there is in Water 
a mineral Matter also, which is usually too scabrous, 
and ponderous, and inflexible, to enter the Pores of 
the Roots. Be the Earth ever so rich, ’tis observed 
little good will come of it, unless the Parts of it be 
loosened a little, and separated. And this probably is 
all the use of Nitre and other Salts to Plants, to loosen 
the Earth, and separate the Parts of it. It is this 
terrestrial Matter which fills the Plants; they are more or 
less nourished and augmented in proportion, as their 
Water conveys a greater or lesser quantity of proper 
terrestrial Matter to them. Nevertheless ‘tis also 
probable that in this there is a variety; and all Plants 
are not formed and filled from the same sort of Corpus- 
cles. Every Vegetable seems to require a peculiar and 
specifick Matter for its Formation and Nourishment. 
If the Soil wherein a Seed is planted, have not all or 
most of the Ingredients necessary for the Vegetable to 
subsist upon, it will suffer accordingly. Thus Wheat 
sown upon a Tract of Land well furnish’d for the Supply 
of that Grain, will succeed very well, perhaps for divers 
Years, or, as the Husbandman expresses it, as long as 
the Ground is in heart; but anon it will produce no 


326 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


more of that Corn; it will of some other, perhaps of 
Barley: and when it will subsist this no more, still 
Oats will thrive there; and perhaps Pease after these. 
When the Ground has lain fallow some time, the Rain 
will pour down a fresh Stock upon it; and the care 
of the Tiller in manuring of it, lays upon it such things 
as are most impregnated with a Supply for Vegetation. 
It is observ’d that Spring-water and Rain-water contain 
pretty near an equal charge of the vegetable Matter, 
but River-water much more than either of them; and 
hence the Inundations of Rivers leave upon their 
Banks the fairest Crops in the World. It is now plain 
that Water is not the Matter that composes Vegetables, 
but the Agent that conveys that Maiter to them, and 
introduces it into the several parts of them. Where- 
fore the plentiful provision of this Fluid supplied to all 
Parts of the Earth, is by our Woodward justly celebrated 
with a pious Acknowledgment of that natural Provi- 
dence that superintends over the Globe which we 
inhabit. The Parts of Water being exactly spherical, 
and subtile beyond all expression, the Surfaces perfectly 
polite, and the Intervals being therefore the largest, 
and so the most fitting to receive a foreign Matter into 
them, it is the most proper Instrument imaginable for 
the Service now assign’d-to it. And yet Water would 
not perform this Office and Service to the Plants, if it 
be not assisted with a due quantity of Heat; Heat must 
concur, or Vegetation will not succeed. Hence as the 
Heat of several Seasons affords a different face of things, 
the same does. the Heat of several Climates. The hotter 
Countries usually yield the larger Trees, and in a greater 
variety. And in warmer Countries, if there be a re- 
mission of the usual Heat, the Production will in pro- 
portion be diminish’d. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 327 


That I may a little contribute my two Mites to the 
illustration of the way wherein Vegetation 1s carried on,~— 
I will here communicate a couple of Experiments lately 
made in my Neighbourhood. : 

My Neighbour planted a Row of Hills in his Field 
with our Indian Corn, but such a Grain as was colour’d 
red and blue; the rest of the Field he planted with Corn 
of the most usual Colour, which is yellow. Tothe most 
Windward-side this Row infected four of the next 
neighbouring Rows, and part of the fifth, and some of 
the sixth, to render them colour’d like what grew on 
itself. But on the Leeward-side no less than seven or 
eight Rows were so colour’d, and some smaller impres- 
sions were made on those that were yet further distant. 

The same Neighbour having his Garden often robb’d 
of the Squashes growing in it, planted some Gourds 
among them, which are to appearance very like them, 
and which he distinguish’d by certain adjacent marks, 
that he might not be himself imposed upon; by this 
means the Thieves ’tis true found a very bitter Sauce, 
but then all the Squashes were so infected and embit- 
ter’d, that he was not himself able to eat what the 
Thieves had left of them. 

That most accurate and experienc’d Botanist Mr. 
Ray has given us the Plants that are more commonly 
met withal, with certain characteristick Notes, wherein 
he establishes twenty-five Genders of them. These 
Plants are to be rather stiled Herbs. 

But then of the Trees and Shrubs, he distinguishes 
five Classes that have their Flower disjoined and remote 
from the Fruit, and as many that have their Fruzt and 
Flower contiguous. 

How unaccountably is the Figure of Plants pre- 
served? And how unaccountably their Growth deter- 


328 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


mined? Our excellent Ray flies to an intelligent plastick 
Nature, which must understand and regulate the whole 
Oeconomy. 

Every particular part of the Plant has its astonishing 
Uses. The Roots give it a Stability, and fetch the 
Nourishment into it, which lies in the Earth ready for 
it. The Fibres contain and convey the Sap which 
carries up that Nourishment. The Plant has also 
larger Vessels, which entertain the proper and specifick 
Juice of it; and others to carry the Air for its necessary 
respiration. The outer and inner Bark defend it from 
Annoyances, and contribute to its Augmentation. 
The Leaves embrace and preserve the Flower and Frutt 
as they come to their explication. But the principal 
use of them, as Malpight, and Perault, and Mariotte,' 
have observed, is, to concoct and prepare the Sap for 
the Nourishment of the Fruit, and of the whole Plant; 
not only that which ascends from the Root, but also 
what they take in from without, from the Dew, and 
from the Rain. For there is a regress of the Sap in 
Plants from above downwards; and this descendent 
Juice is that which principally nourishes both Fruit 
and Plant, as has been clearly proved by the Experi- 
ments of Signior Malpight and Mr. Brotherton. 

How agreeable the Shade of Plants, let every Man 
say that sits under his own Vine, and under his own 
Fig-tree! . 

How charming the Proportion and Pulchritude of 
the Leaves, the Flowers, the Fruits, he who confesses 
not, must be, as Dr. More says, one sunk into a forlorn 
pitch of Degeneracy, and stupid as a Beast. 

Our Saviour says of the Lillies (which some, not 


1 Mather here is drawing from Ray’s Wisdom of God, Part I, whence 
he derives these references to other authors. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 329 


without reason, suppose to be Tulips) that Solomon 
in all his Glory was not arrayed like one of these. And it is 
observed by Spigelius, that the Art of the most skilful 
Painter cannot so- mingle and temper his Colours, as 
exactly to imitate or counterfeit the native ones of the 
Flowers of Vegetables. 

Mr. Ray thinks it worthy a very particular Observa- 
tion, that Wheat, which is the best sort of Grain, and 
affords the wholesomest Bread, is in a singular manner 
patient of both Extremes, both Heat and Cold, and 
will grow to maturity as well in Scotland, and in Den- 
mark, as in Egypt, and Guiney, and Madagascar. It 
scarce refuses any Climate. And the exceeding Fertility 
of itis by a Pagan Pliny acknowledged as an Instance of 
the Divine Bounty to Man, Quod co maxime Hominem 
alat;' one Bushel in a fit Soil, he says, yielding one 
hundred and fifty. A German Divine so far plays the 
Philosopher on this Occasion, as to propose it for a 
Singularity in Bread, that totum Corpus sustentat, 
adeo, ut in unica Bucella, omnium Membrorum totius 
externi Corporis, nutrimentum contineatur, illiusque 
Vis per totum Corpus sese diffundat.? A Friend of mine 
had thirty-six Ears of Rye growing from one Grain, and 
on one Stalk. 

But of our Indian Corn, one Grain of Corn will pro- 
duce above a thousand. And of Guiney*® Corn, one 
Grain has been known to produce ten thousand. 

The Anatomy of Plants, as it has been exhibited by 

1 “Because he feeds man chiefly with it.” Ray, in whose book 
Mather found this quotation, has “lit.” 

2“T+ sustains all the body, to such a degree that in one bushel is 
contained nutriment for all the members of the whole body, and its 
strength is spread through all the body.” Mather adds this quota- 


tion to what he finds in Ray. 
3 Guinea, 


330 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


the incomparable Curiosity of Dr. Grew, what a vast 
Field of Wonders does it lead us into! 

The most inimitable Structure of the Parts! 

The particular Canals, and most adapted ones, for 
the conveyance of the lymphatick and essential Juices! 

The Air-Vessels in all their curious Coylings! 

The Coverings which befriend them, a Work un- 
speakably more curious in reality than in appearance! 

The strange Texture of the Leaves, the angular or 
circular, but always most orderly Position of their 
Fibres; the various Foldings, with a Duplicature, a 
Multiplicature, the Fore-rowl, the Back-rowl, the Tre- 
rowl; the noble Guard of the Films interposed! 

The Flowers, their Gaiety and Fragrancy; the Pe- 
rianthium or Empalement of them; their curious Fold- 
ings in the Calyx before their Expansion, with a close 
Couch or a concave Couch, a single Plait or a double 
Plait, or a Plait and Couch together, or a Rowl, or a 
Spire, or Plait and Spire together; and their luxuriant 
Colours after their Foliation, and the expanding of 
their Petala! 

The Stamina, with their Apices; and the Stylus 
(called the 4itire by Dr. Grew) which is found a sort 
of Male Sperm, to impregnate and fructify the Seed! 

At last the whole Rudiments and Lineaments of the 
Parent-Vegetable, surprizingly lock’d up in the little 
compass of the Fruit or Seed! } 

Gentlemen of Leisure, consult my illustrious Doctor, 
peruse his Anatomy of Plants, ponder his numberless 
Discoveries; but all the while consider that rare Person 
as inviting you to join with him in adoring the God of 

1 The substance of the nine preceding paragraphs comes directly 


from Derham’s Physico-Theology, in which Mather found the refer- 
ences to Grew. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 331 


his Father, and the God who has done these excellent 
things, which ought to be known 11 all the Earth. 

Signior Malpighi has maintain’d it with cogent 
Arguments, that the whole Plant is actually in the 
Seed; and he answers the grand Objection against it, 
which is drawn from a degeneracy of one Plant some- 
times into another. One of his Answers is, Ex morboso 
£3 monstroso affectu, non licet intferre permanentem sta- 
tum a Natura intentum.* 

But there is no Objection to be made against Ocular 
Observation. Shew us, Lewenhoeck, how it is? He will 
give us to see, a small Particle no bigger than a Sand, 
contain the Plant, and all belonging to it, all actually 
in that little Seed; yea, in the Nux vomica it appears 
even to the naked Eye, and in an astonishing Elegancy! 
Dr. Cheyne expresses himself with good assurance upon 
it: ‘We are certain that the Seeds of Plants are nothing 
‘but little Plants perfectly formed, with Branches and 
“Leaves duly folded up, and involved in Membranes, 
‘or surrounded with Walls proper to defend them in 
‘this tender state from external Injuries; and Vegetation 
‘is only the unfolding and extending of these Branches 
‘and Leaves, by the force of Juices raised by Heat in 
‘the slender Tubes of the Plant.’ 

Those capillary Plants, which all the Antients, and 
some of the Moderns, have taken to be destitute of 
Seeds, are by Bauhinus and others now pronounced 
Spermatophorous. Mr. Ray says, Hanc Sententiam 
verissimam esse Autopsia convincit.” 


1“Tt is not permissible to infer from an abnormal and monstrous 
eo; oe ° 33 
condition the permanent state designed by Nature.” Here as before, 
Mather simply takes the quotation from Derham. The same applies 
to the quotation from Lewenhoeck, which follows. 
2“ Examination proves this opinion to be very true.” Quoted 
from Derham. 


ey THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


Fr. Cesius claims to be the first who discovered the 
Seeds of these Plants, with the help of a Microscope. 
One Mr. Cole has prosecuted the Observation, and is 
astonished at the small Dimensions of the Seeds. The 
Boxes or Vessels that hold the Seeds are not half, per- 
haps not a quarter, so big as a Grain of Sand; and yet 
an hundred Seeds are found in one of these. Tantam 
Plantam é tantillo Semine produci attentum Observatorem 
merito 1n Admuirationem rapiat! } 

Sir Thomas Brown observes, That of the Seeds of 
Tobacco a thousand make not one Grain; (tho Otto de 
Gueric, as I remember, says, fifty-two Cyphers with 
one Figure will give the Number of those, which would 
fill the Space between us and the Stars!) A Plant which 
has extended its Empire over the whole World, and has a 
larger Dominion than any of all the Vegetable Kingdom.” 

Ten thousand Seeds of Harts-tongue hardly make 
the Bulk of a Pepper-corn. But now, as Dr. Grew notes, 
the Body, with the Covers of every Seed, the ligneous 
and parenchymous Parts of both, the Fibres of those 
Parts, the Principles of those Fibres, and the homo- 
geneous Particles of those Principles, being but mod- 
erately multiplied one by another, afford an hundred 
thousand millions of Atoms formed in the Space of a 
Pepper-corn. But who can define how many more! 

The Uses of Trees in various Works were elegantly 
celebrated, as long ago as when Theophrastus wrote 
his fifth Book of the History of Plants. 

And what stately Trees do sometimes by their glorious 


1“That so great a plant is produced from so small a seed, drives 
the attentive watcher rightly to wonder.” Quoted from Derham. 

2 Otto von Guericke was a German scientist, 1602-1686. The rest 
of the paragraph seems to be drawn from Sir Thomas Browne’s 
Garden of Cyrus. 

’ Mather seems here to be using Grew’s Anatomy of Plants. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 333 


Height and Breadth recommend themselves to a more 
singular Observation with us! The Cabbage-tree' 
an hundred and forty or fifty Foot high, as if it were 
aspiring to afford a Diet to the Regions above us; 
how noble a Spectacle! 

The Trees which are found sometimes near twenty 
Foot, or perhaps more, in circumference, what capacious 
Canoes do they afford, when the Traveller makes 
them change their Element? Near Scio there is an 
Island called Long-Island, and on this Island (as 
Jo. Pitts? tells us) there is a Tree of a prodigious bigness; 
under it are Coffee-houses, and many Shops of several 
Intentions, and several Fountains of Water; and it has 
near forty Pillars of Marble and of Timber to support 
the Branches of it. It is a Tree famous to a Proverb 
all over Turkey. 

Even the most noxious and the most abject of the 
Vegetables, how useful are they! As of the Bramble 
Dr. Grew notes, If it chance to prick the Owner, it will 
also tear the Thief. Olaus Magnus admires the Benefits 
which the rotten Barks of Oaks give to the Northern 
People, by the Shine, with which they do in their long 
Nights direct the Traveller. And Dr. Merret cele- 
brates the Thistles, and the Hop-strings, for the Glass 
afforded by their Ashes! ° 

The frugal Bit of the old Britons, which in the bigness 
of a Bean satished the most hungry and thirsty Appe- 
tite, is now thrown into the Catalogue of the Res 
deperdite.* 


1 A name given to various palm-trees. 

2 Joseph Pitts, 1663-1735, English traveller and writer. 

3 All the references in this paragraph are from Derham. 

4 “Things which are lost.” Speed, History of Great Britaine, (1611), 
167, says that the Britons could live “with a kind of meat no bigger 
then a beane” after eating which they did not hunger or thirst. 


334 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


The peculiar Care which the great God of Nature 
has taken for the Safety of the Seed and Fruit, and so 
for the Conservation of the Plant, is by my ingenious 
Derham considered as a loud Invitation to His Praises. 

They which dare shew their Heads all the Year, 
how securely is their Seed or Fruit lock’d up in the 
Winter in their Gems,! and well cover’d with neat and 
close Tunicks there! 

Such as dare not expose themselves, how are they 
preserved under the Coverture of the Earth, till invited 
out by the kindly Warmth of the Spring! 

When the Vegetable Race comes abroad, what strange 
Methods of Nature are there to guard them from In- 
conveniences, by making some to lie down prostrate, 
by making others, which were by the Antients called 
ZEschynomene, to close themselves up at the Touch of 
Animals, and by making the most of them to shut up 
under their guard in the cool of the Evening, especially 
if there be foul Weather approaching; which is by 
Gerhard * therefore called, The Countryman’s Weather- 
wiser! 

What various ways has Nature for the scattering and 
the sowing of the Seed! Some are for this end winged 
with a light sort of a Down, to be carried about with 
the Seed by the Wind. Some are laid in springy cases, 
which when they burst and crack, dart their Seed to a 
distance, performing therein the part of an Husband- 
man. Others by their good Qualities invite them- 
selves to be swallowed by the Birds, and being fertiliz’d 
by passing thro their Bodies, they are by them trans- 
ferred to places where they fructify. Theophrastus 


1 Buds. 
2 John Gerard, 1545-1612, English herbalist. Quoted from Der- 
ham. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 555 


affirms this of the Misletoe; and Tavernier of the Nutmeg. 
Others not thus taken care for, do, by their Usefulness 
to us, oblige us to look after them. 

It is a little surprizing, that Seeds found in the 
Gizzards of Wild-fowl, have afterwards sprouted in the 
Earth; and Seeds left in the Dung of the Cattel. The 
Seeds of Marjoram and Strammonium, carelesly kept, 
have grown after seven Years. 

How nice the provision of Nature for their Support 
in standing and growing, that they may keep their 
Heads above ground, and administer to our Intentions! 
There are some who stand by their own Strength; 
and the ligneous parts of these, tho’ like our Bones, 
yet are not, like them, inflexible, but of an elastick 
nature, that they may dodge the Violence of the Winds: 
and their Branches at the top very commodiously have 
a tendency to an hemispherical Dilatation, but within 
such an Angle as makes an AXquilibration there. 
An ingenious Observer upon this one Circumstance, 
cannot forbear this just Reflection: 4 visible Argument 
that the plastick Capacities of Matter are govern d by an 
all-wise and infinite Agent, the native Strictnesses and 
Regularities of them plainly shewing from whose Hand 
they come. And then such as are too weak to stand of 
themselves, tis wonderful to see how they use the Help 
of their Neighbours, address them, embrace them, climb 
up about them, some twisting themselves with a 
strange convolving Faculty, some catching hold with 
Claspers and Tendrels, which are like Hands to them; 
someé striking in rooty Feet, and some emitting a natural 
Glue, by which they adhere to their Supporters. 

But, Oh! the glorious Goodness of our GOD in all 
these things! Lend us thy Pen, O industrious Ray, to 
declare a little of it. Plantarum usus latissime patet, 


336 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


& in omni Vite parte occurrit. Sine illis caute, sine 
ilis commode, non vivitur, at nec vivitur omnino: quecun- 
que ad victum necessaria sunt, quecunque ad Delicias 
faciunt, é locupletissimo suo Penu abunde subministrant. 
Quanto ex 115 Mensa innocentior, mu ndior, salubrior, 
quam ex Animalium Cede &F Laniena! Homo cert? 
Natura Animal carnivorum non est; nullis ad Predam 
© Rapinam armis instructum; non Dentibus exertis €9 
serratis, non Unguibus aduncis. Manus ad Fructus 
colligendos, Dentes- ad mandendos comparati. Non 
legimus et ante Diluvium Carnes ad esum concessas. 
At non victum tantum nobis suppeditant, sed &F Vestitum, 
F Medicinam, &F Domicilia, aliaque A:dificia, &F Navigia, 
© Supellectilem, &F Focum, €¥% Oblectamenta Sensuum 
Animique. Ex his Naribus Odoramenta €9 Suffumigia 
parantur: Horum Flores inenarrabili Colorum 9 Sche- 
matum Varietate &% Elegantia Oculos exhilarant, €3 
suavissima Odorum quos expirant Fragantia, Spiritus 
recreant. Horum Fructus, Gule illecebre Mensas 
secundas instruunt, & languentem Appetitum excitant. 
Laceo Virorem Oculis Amicum, quem per Prata, Pascua, 
Agros, Sylvas spatiantibus objiciunt; &£ Umbras quas 
contra 4:stum & Solis Ardores prebent.} 

1“The use of plants is most pleasantly displayed, and occurs in 
every part of life. Without them one could not live prudently or con- 
veniently, or, indeed, at all. They afford from their rich store what- 
ever is necessary for food and whatever ministers to delight. With 
them how much less offensive and how much cleaner and more health- 
ful is a feast, than one with the slaughtering and butchering of ani- 
mals. Man certainly is not naturally carniverous, he is not supplied 
with weapons for plundering and preying, nor with bare,’ sharp 
teeth, or hooked nails. His hands are prepared for gathering fruit, 
and his teeth for chewing it. We do not learn that flesh was lawful 
food for him before the flood. Plants supply not only food for us 


but also clothing, medicine, houses and other buildings, ships, furni- 
ture, the hearth-fire, and the delights of the senses and the mind. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 337 


Indeed all the Plants in the whole Vegetable Kingdom 
are every one of them so useful, as to rise up for thy 
Condemnation, O Man, who dost little Good in the World. 
But sometimes the Uses of one single Plant are so many, 
so various, that a wise Man can scarce behold it without 
some Emulation as well as Admiration, or without 
some wishing, that if a Metamorphosis were to befal 
him, it might be into one of these. Plutarch reports, 
that the Babylonians out of the Palm-tree fetch’d more 
than three hundred several sorts of Commodities. 

The Coco-iree supplies the Indians with Bread, and 
Water, and Wine, and Vinegar, and Brandy, and Milk, 
and Oil, and Honey, and Sugar, and Needles, and 
Thread, and Linnen, and Clothes, and Cups, and 
Spoons, and Besoms, and Baskets, and Paper, and 
Nails; Timber, Coverings for their Houses; Masts, 
Sails, Cordage, for their Vessels; add, Medicines for 
their Diseases; and what can be desired more? This is 
more expressively related in the Hortus Malabaricus, 
published by the illustrious Van Draakenstein. 

The Aloe Muricata yields the Americans all that 
their Necessities can call for. Dela Vega and Margrave 
will inform us how this alone furnishes them with 
Houses and Fences, and Weapons of many sorts, and 
Shoes, and Clothes, and Thread, and Needles, and Wine, 


and Honey, and Utensils that cannot be numbred. 


They prepare odors and scents for the nostrils; their flowers please 
the eye with endless variety and grace of color and form, and their 
sweet fragrances refresh the spirits. ‘Their fruits make rich feasts 
with tempting flavors, and stimulate flagging appetite. I say nothing 
of the friendly greenness they offer to the eyes of those who walk, by 
means of their meadows, pastures, fields, woods, and the shade they 
afford against heat and the brightness of the sun.” Mather takes 
this quotation as it is given by Derham. 
1 The reference is from Ray’s Wisdom of God. 


338 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


Hernandes will assure us, Planta hec unica, quicquid 
Vite esse potest necessarium facile prestare potest, si 
esset rebus humanis modus. } 

What a surprizing Diversity from the Cinnamon-tree! 

Some will have the Plantane to be the King of all 
Fruit, tho the Tree be little more than ten Foot high, 
and raised not from Seed, but from the Roots of the old 
ones. The Fruzt a delicate Butter, and often the whole 
Food that a whole Family will subsist upon. 

Among the Uses of Plants, how surprizing an one is 
that, wherein we find them used for Cisterns, to pre- 
serve Water for the needy Children of Men! 

The Dropping-tree in Guiney, and on some Islands, is 
instead of Rains and Springs to the Inhabitants. 

The Banduca Cingatensium, at the end of its Leaves 
has long Sacks or Bags, containing a fine limpid Water, 
of great use to the People when they want Rains 
for eight or ten Months together. 

The wild Pine, describ’d by Dr. Sloane, has the 
Leaves, which are each of them two Foot and an half 
long, and three Inches broad, so inclosed one within 
another, that there is formed a large Bason, fit to 
contain a considerable quantity of Water (Dampier 
says, the best part of a Quart) which in the rainy Season 
falling upon the utmost parts of the spreading Leaves, 
runs down by Channels into the Bottle, where the 
Leaves bending inwards again, come so close to the 
Stalk, as to hinder the Evaporations of the Water. In 
the mountainous, as well as in the dry and low Woods, 
when there is a scarcity of Water, this Reservatory is 
not only necessary and sufficient for the nourishment 


1“This one plant can furnish easily whatever can be necessary 
for human life.” If the first part of the paragraph is from Ray, the 
quotation is taken from Derham. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 339 


of the Plant itself, but it is likewise of marvellous ad- 
vantage unto Men and Birds, and all sorts of Insects, 
who then come hither in Troops, and seldom go away 
without Refreshment. 

What tho there are venomous Planis? An excellent 
Fellow of the College of Physicians makes a just Remark: 
‘Aloes has the Property of promoting Hemorrhages; 
‘but this Property is good or bad, as it is used; a Med:- 
‘cine or a Poison: And it is very probable that the most 
‘dangerous Poisons, skilfully managed, may be made 
‘not only innocuous, but of all other Medicines the most 
‘effectual.’ } 

What admirable Effects of Opium well smegmatized!? 
Even poisonous Plants, one says of them, It may be 
reasonably supposed that they draw into their visible 
Bodies that malignant Juice, which, if diffused thro the 
other Plants, would make them less wholesome and fit 
for Nourishment. 

In the Delights of the Garden ’tis not easy to hold a 
Mediocrity. They afford a Shadow for our celestial 
Paradise. The King of Persia has a Garden called 
Paradise upon Earth. The antient Romans cultivated 
them to a degree of Epicurism. Some confined their 
Delights to a single Vegetable, as Cato, doting on his 
Cabbage. The Tulipists are so set upon their gaudy 
Flower, that the hard Name and Crime of a Tulipo- 
mania, is by their own Professors charged upon them; 
a little odd the Humour of those Gentlemen, who 
affected Plantations of none but venomous Vegetables.° 

But finally, the vast Uses of Plants in Medicine, are 
those which fallen and feeble Mankind has cause to 


1 The quotation is from Grew’s Cosmologia Sacra. 
2 Cleansed, scoured. 
: 9 
3 Mather draws here from Sir Thomas Browne’s Garden of Cyrus. 


340 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


consider, with singular Praises to the merciful God, 
who so pities us under the sad Effects of our Offences. 

Among the eighteen or twenty thousand Vegetables, 
we have ever now and then a single one, which is a 
Polychrest,' and almost a Panacea; or at least such an 
one as obliges us to say of it, as Dr. Morton speaks of 
the Cortex Peruvianus; ’tis Antidotus in Levamen 
Azrumnarum Vite humane plurimarum divinitus con- 
cessa. And, In Sanitatem Gentium proculdubio a Deo 
optimo maximo condita.” 

Among the Antients there were several Plants that 
bore the Name of Hercules, called Heracleum, or 
Heraclea; probably, as Le Clerc thinks, to denote the 
extraordinary Force of the Plants, which they compared 
to the Strength of Hercules. 

Cabbage was to the Romans their grand Physick, as 
well as Food, for six hundred Years together. 

Mallows has been esteemed such an universal Medi- 
cine, as to be called Malva Omnimorbia.? 

Every body has heard, 





Cur moriatur homo cut Salvia crescit in hortis? 4 


The six favourite Herbs distinguish’d by Sir William 
Temple ° for the many Uses of them, namely, Sage, and 
Rue, and Saffron, and Alehoof, and Garlick, and Elder, 


if they were more frequently used, would no doubt 


1 Something useful for many purposes. 

?““An antidote divinely granted for the relief of many distresses 
of human life,” and “established doubtless by the great and good 
God for the health of nations.” “Cortex peruvianus,” Peruvian bark, 
is quinine. Mather draws here from Derham. 

3 “ Mallow of all diseases.” 

*“ Why should a man die who has sage in his garden?” Cf. the 
English proverb, “He that would live for aye must eat sage in May.” 

® In his essay Of Health and Long Life. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 341 


be found vastly beneficial to such as place upon Health 
the Value due to such a Jewel. 

The French do well to be such great Lovers of Sorrel, 
and plant so many Acres of it; it is good against the 
Scurvy, and all ill Habits of Body. 

The Persuasion which Mankind has imbib’d of 
Tobacco being good for us, has in a surprizing manner 
prevail’d! What incredible Millions have suck’d in 
an Opinion, that it is an useful as well as a pleasant 
thing, for them to spend much of their Time in drawing 
thro a Pipe the Smoke of that lighted Weed! It was in 
the Year 1585, that one Mr. Lane carried over from 
Virginia some Tobacco, which was the first that had 
ever been seen in Europe; ! and within an hundred Years 
the smoking of it grew so much into fashion, that the 
very Customs of it brought four hundred thousand 
Pounds a Year into the English Treasury. 

It is doubtless a Plant of many Virtues. The Oint- 
ment made of it is one of the best in the Dispensatory. 
The Practice of smoking it, tho a great part of them 
that use it might very truly say, they find neither Good 
nor Hurt by it; yet it may be fear’d it rather does more 
Hurt than Good. 

‘May God preserve me from the indecent, ignoble, 
‘criminal Slavery, to the mean Delight of smoking a 
‘Weed, which I see so many carried away with. And 
“¢ ever I should smoke it, let me be so wise as to do it, 
‘not only with Moderation, but also with such Employ- 
‘ments of my Mind, as I may make that Action afford 
‘me a Leisure for!’ 


1 Ralph Lane, first governor of Virginia, with Sir Francis Drake 
brought from Virginia tobacco and pipes, and handed them over to 
Sir Walter Raleigh. Lane is said to have been the first English 
smoker. 


342 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


Methinks Tobacco is but a poor Nepenthe, tho the 
Takers thereof take it for such an one. It is to be 
feared the caustick Salt in the Smoke of this Plant, 
convey'd by the Salival Juice into the Blood, and also 
the Vellication! which the continual use of it in Snuff 
gives to the Nerves may lay Foundations for Diseases in 
Millions of unadvised People, which may be commonly 
and erroneously ascribed to some other Original. 

It is very remarkable, that our compassionate God 
has furnish’d all Regions with Plants peculiarly adapted 
for the relief of the Diseases that are most common 
in those Regions. ’Tis Mr. Ray’s Remark, Tales 
Plantarum Species in quacunque Regione a Deo creantur, 
quales Hominibus {9 Animalibus ibidem natis maxime 
conventunt.” 

Yea, Solenander affirms, that from the Quantity of 
the Plants most plentifully growing in any place, he 
could give a probable Guess what were the Distem- 
pers which the People there were most of all sub- 
ject to. 

Benerovinus has written a Book, on purpose to shew 
that every Country has every thing serving to its Oc- 
casions, and particularly Remedies for all the Distempers 
which it may be afflicted with.3 

Can we be any other than charmed with the Goodness 
appearing in it, when we see the Plants every where 
starting out of the Earth, and hear their courteous 
Invitation, Feeble Man, I am a Remedy, which our 


1 Trritation. 

2“Such species of plants are created by God in each district as 
are most suited to the men and animals native there.” Mather takes 
the quotation from Derham. 

3 The references to Solenander and Benerovinus are taken from 


Derham. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 343 


gracious Maker has provided for thy Feebleness; take me, 
know me, use me, thou art welcome to all the Good that 1s 
to be found in me! 

Yea, such are the Virtues of the Vegetable World, 
that it is no rare thing to see a whole Book written on 
the Virtues of one single Vegetable. 

How long is Rosenbergius on the Rose, in his Rhodo- 
logia! Whitaker will have the Vine to be the Tree of 
Life, in his Treatise on the Blood of it. Alsted has 
entertained us with a yet greater variety on that 
Plant of Renown." 

I was going to mention the Anatomia Sambuct, written 
by a German Philosopher. 

But I presently call to mind such a vast Number of 
Treatises published, each of them on one single Vegeta- 
ble, by the Nature Curiosi? of Germany, that a Catalogue 
would be truly too tedious to be introduced. 

If the Coral may pass for a Vegetable, Garencieres* has 
obliged us with a whole Treatise upon it. 

But then we have one far-fetch’d and dear-boughi 
Plant, on which we have so many Volumes written, 
that they alone almost threaten to become a Library. 
TEA is that charming Plant. Read Pecklinus’s* Book 
de Potu Thea, and believe the medicinal and balsamick 
Virtues of it; it strengthens the Stomach, it sweetens 
the Blood, it revives the Heart, and it refreshes the 
Spirits, and is a Remedy against a World of Distempers. 

1 Johann Carl Rosenberg, physician, fl. c. 1625. Tobias Whitaker, 
who died in 1666, was the author of The Tree of Humane Life, or the 
Bloud of the Grape, a defense of wine, published in 1638; Johann 
Heinrich Alsted, 1588-1638, encyclopedic writer and reformed theo- 
logian. 

2 Scientists. 

3 Théophile de Garencieres, 1615-1670, French physician. 

4 Johannes Pechlin, 1646-1706, Dutch physician. 


344 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


Then go to Waldschmidt,1 and you'll find it also to 
brighten the Jntellectuals. When Prose has done its 
part, our Tate? will bring in Verse to celebrate the 
sovereign. Virtues of it. 


Innocuos Calices, §5 Amicam Vatibus Herbam 
Vimque datam Folio.’ 


At last it shall be the very @ea 4 of the Poet. 


Whilst TEA, our Sorrows safely to beguile, 
Sobriety and Mirth does reconcile: 

For to this Nectar we the Blessing owe, 

T'o grow more wise as we more chearful grow. 


There is a Curiosity observed by Mr. Robinson of 
Ousby, that should not be left unmentioned; it is, that 
Birds are the natural Planters of all sorts of Trees; they 
disseminate the Kernels on the Earth, which brings 
them forth to perfection. Yea, he affirms, that he hath 
actually seen a great Number of Crows together planting 
a Grove of Oaks; they first made little Holes in the 
Earth with their Bills, going about and about, till 
the Hole was deep enough, and then they dropt in the 
Acorn, and cover’d it with Earth and Moss. At the 
time of his writing, this young Plantation was growing 
up towards a Grove of Oaks, and of an height for the 
Crows to build their Nests in. 

‘Probably Johann Jacob Waldschmidt, 1644-1689, German phy- 
sician and medical writer. 

? Nahum Tate, 1652-1715. 

’ “Harmless cups, and the herb friendly to poets, and the power 
given by the leaf.” The lines are from the title-page of Tate’s 
Panacea, (London, 1700). 


** Goddess.” The lines quoted are from Tate’s “The Tea-Table,” 
printed at the end of his Panacea. 


OF THE VEGETABLES 346 


In Virginia there is a Plant called The James-Town- 
Weed, whereof some having eaten plentifully, turn’d 
Fools upon it for several Days; one would blow up a 
Feather in the Air, another dart Straws at it; a third 
sit stark naked, like a Monkey, grinning at the rest; 
a fourth fondly kiss and paw his Companions, and 
snear in their Faces. In this frantick State they were 
confined, lest they should kill themselves, tho there 
appear’d nothing but Innocence in all their Actions. 
After eleven Days they return’d to themselves, not 
remembring any thing that had pass’d. 

My Friend, a Madness more sensless than that with 
which this Vegetable envenoms the Eaters of it, holds 
thee in the stupefying Chains thereof, if thou dost not 
behold in the whole Vegetable Kingdom such Works of 
the glorious Creator, as call for a continual Admira- 
tion. 

q. It is a notable Stroke of Divinity methinks which 
Pliny falls upon, Flores Odoresque indiem gignit Natura, 
magna (ut palam est) Admonitione hominum.’ 

‘The Man began to be cured of his Blindness, who 
‘could say, I see Men, like Trees, walking. That Man 
‘is yet perfectly blind who does not see Men, like Trees, 
‘first growing and flourishing, then withering, decaying, 
‘dying.’ 

‘The Rape Anthropomorphe, and some other Plants, 
‘that have grown with much of an Human Figure, to 
‘be fancied on them, have been odd things. But there 
‘are Points wherein all Plants will exhibit something 
‘of the Human Figure.’ 

‘The Parts of Plants analogous to those in an Human 
‘Body, are notably enumerated by Alsted in his Theologia 


1“ Nature brought forth flowers and fragrance in a day, as a great 
example, which is plain, to men,” 


346 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


‘Naturalis. The Analogy between their States and 
‘ours would be also as profitable as reasonable a Subject 
‘of Contemplation.’ 

‘And I hope the Revival of the Plants in the Spring 
‘will carry us to the Faith of our own Resurrection 
“from the Dead.’ 

‘And of the Recovery which the Church will one day 
‘see from a Winter of Adversity; the World from a 
‘Winter of Impiety: The Earth shall one day be filled 
‘with the Fruits of Righteousness, however barren and 
‘horrid may be the present Aspect of it.’ 

‘A Man famous in his day (and in ours too) thought 
‘himself well accommodated for devotionary Studies, 
‘tho he says, Nullos se aliquando Magistros habuisse 
‘nist Quercus &9 Fagos.”} 

‘I will hear these Field-Preachers, their loud Voice 
‘to me from the Earth, is the same with what would 
‘be uttered by Angels flying thro the midst of Heaven; 
‘Fear God, and glorify him! 

‘One thus articulates the Vegetable Sermons: Ecce 
‘nos, O increduli filti hominum, nuper mortut eramus, at 
‘nunc reviximus. Vetus nostrum Corpus ac Vestimentum 
“deposuimus, 9 nove Creature facte sumus. Facite vos 
‘nunc aliquid simile.2 And again, Dum in hac miserrima 
“Vita estis, nolite de Corpore esse solliciti; nostri memores 
“estote, quas Creator honestissime coloratis V. estibus induit, 
‘quotannis per tot Millenarios, jam inde ab exordio 
‘Mund1.2 And once more, Ecce vires nostra, non nobis 


1“ He had never any masters except the oaks and beeches.” 

*“Lo, unbelieving sons of men, we were lately dead but now we 
live again. We put off our old bodies and garments and are made 
new creatures. Do you now the same.” 

*“Do not be concerned for your bodies while you are in this 
miserable world. Be mindful of us, whom God has dressed nobly in 


OF THE VEGETABLES 347 


‘ipsis, sed vobis deserviunt. Non nostro Bono floremus, 
‘sed vestro. Imo Divina Bonitas vobis floret per nos, ut 
‘dicere possitis, Dei Benignitatem in nobis florere, suoque 
‘Qdore suavissimo vos recreare.’* 

‘A famous German Doctor of Philosophy declares, 
‘that he found it impossible for him to look upon the 
‘Vegetable World without those Acclamations, Psalm 
‘oxxxix. 6. The Knowledge of these things is too wonder- 
‘ful for me, 1t 15 high, I cannot attain to 1t.’ 

‘The pious Arndt observes, that every Creature 1s 
‘enstamp’d with Characters of the Divine Goodness, 
‘and brings Testimonies of a good Creator. Our Vine 
‘so calls upon us, Scias, O homo, hanc Liquoris met Sua- 
‘vitatem, qua Cor tuum recreo, a Creatore meo esse? Our 
‘Bread so calls upon us, Vis ista, qua famem sublevo, a 
‘Creatore meo, 3 vestro mihi obtigit.® It is a Saying of 
“Austin’s, Deum Creaturas singulas guttula Divine sue 
‘Bonitatis aspersisse, ut per illas homint bene Pele 

‘NX devout Writer treats us with such a Thought 
‘as this: Our God is like a tender Father, who, when 
‘the Infant complies not presently with his Calls, 
‘allures him with the Offer of pleasant Fruits to him. 
‘Not that the Child should stop in the Love of the 


colored garments yearly through so many ages since the beginning 
of the world.” 

1 “To, our strength is devoted not to ourselves but to you. We do 
not bloom for our own good, but for yours. Yes, the divine goodness 
blooms for you through us, in order that you may say that the benev- 
olence of God flowers in us and that His sweetness refreshes you.” 

2 “Know, O man, that the sweetness of my juice, by which I cheer 
your heart, is from my creator.” 

3 “That power by which I relieve hunger, falls to my lot from my 
creator and yours.” 

4“God has sprinkled individual creatures with a little drop of 
his divine goodness, in order that through them men might be well 


off.”’ 


348 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


‘A pple, the Plumb, the Pear, but be by the Fruits drawn 
‘to the Love and Obedience of the Father that gives 
‘them. Our heavenly Father calling on us in his Word, 
"gives us also Rain from Heaven, and fruitful Seasons, 
‘to engage our Love and Obedience. Que sané Beneficia 
‘aliud nihil sunt, quam tot manus €8 Nuncit Det, parati 
‘ad ipsum Deum nos deducere, wliusque amorem altius 
‘amimis nostris insinuare, ut wpsum tandem Datorem 
“in Creaturis & Donis suscipere discamus.’ 4 

‘Among other Thoughts of Piety upon the Vegetable 
‘World, some have allow’d a room for this; the strong 
‘Passion in almost all Children for Fruit; by ten- 
‘dring Fruits to them, you may draw them to any thing 
‘in the World. May not this be a lasting Signature 
‘of the first Sin, left upon the Minds of our Children! 
‘An Appetite for the forbidden Fruit. When we see 
‘our Children greedy after Fruits, a remembrance 
‘and repentance of that Sin may be excited in us.’ 

Add this: Quid prodest ope Creaturarum vivere, si Deo 
non vivitur? * 





A good Thought of a German Writer: 


Sol & Luna, totusqgue Mundus Sydereus, luce sua Deum 
collaudunt. Terra Deum laudat, dum viret €9 floret. Sic 
Hlerbe & Flosculi Opificis sui Omntpotentiam &9 Sapien- 
tiam commendant Odore, Pulchritudine, &% Colorum varia 
Pictura: Aves Cantu €9 Modulatione; Arbores Fructibus; 
Mare Piscibus; omnes Creature laudant Deum, dum illius 
mandata exequuntur. Colloquuntur nobiscum per divint- 

1“ Which benefits are nothing but so many hands and messengers 
of God, designed to lead us to God himself, and to instil in our minds 
a loftier love of Him, in order that we may learn to recognize Him, 


the Giver, in His creatures and gifts.” 


2“ What is the use of living with riches of the world, if one does not 
live with God?” 


OF MAN 349 


tus 1psis insitas Proprietates, manifestantes opificem suum, 
€F exhortantes nos ad ipsum laudandum.' 


ESSAY XXXII. Of MAN 


[From page 294 of the original edition, to the end of the 
book.| 


Q. Hear now the Conclusion of the Matter. Yo en- 
kindle the Dispositions and the Resolutions of PIETY 
in my Brethren, is the Intention of all my ESSAYS, 
and must be the Conclusion of them. 

Atheism is now for ever chased and hissed out of the 
World, every thing in the World concurs to a Sentence 
of Banishment upon it. Fly, thou Monster, and hide, 
and let not the darkest Recesses of Africa itself be able to 
cherish thee; never dare to shew thyself in a World where 
every thing stands ready to overwhelm thee! A BEING 
that must be superior to Matter, even the Creator and 
Governor of all Matter, is every where so conspicuous, 
that there can be nothing more monstrous than to deny 
the God that is above. No System of Atheism has ever 
yet been offered among the Children of Men, but what 
may presently be convinced of such Inconststences, that 
a Man must ridiculously believe nothing certain before 
he can imagine them; it must be a System of Thangs 

1“The sun and moon, and all the universe, praise God by their 
light. The Earth praises God, when it flowers and is green. So the 
grass and the little flowers commend their maker’s omnipotence and 
wisdom by their fragrance, beauty, and the varied painting of their 
colors. The birds praise God with song and melody; the trees, with 
fruit; the sea, with fish; all creatures praise Him while they carry 
out His commands. They talk to us by means of the properties 
divinely given them, displaying His handiwork, and urging us to 
praise Him.” 


350 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


which cannot stand together! A Bundle of Contradictions 
to themselves, and to all common Sense. I doubt it 
has been an inconsiderate thing to pay so much of a 
Compliment to Atheism, as to bestow solemn Treatises 
full of learned Arguments for the Refutation of a delir- 
tous Phrenzy, which ought rather to be put out of 
countenance with the most contemptuous Indignation. 
And I fear such Writers as have been at the pains to 
put the Objections of Atheism into the most plausible 
Terms, that they may have the honour of laying a 
Devil when they have raised him, have therein done too 
unadvisedly. However, to so much notice of the raving 
Atheist we may condescend while we go along, as to 
tell him, that for a Man to question the Being of a GOD, 
who requires from us an Homage of Affection, and 
Wonderment, and Obedience to Himself, and a perpetual 
Concern for the Welfare of the Human Society, for which 
He has in our Formation evidently suited us, would be 
an exalted Folly, which undergoes especially two Con- 
‘demnations; it is first condemned by this, that every 
Part of the Universe is continually pouring in something 
for the confuting of it; there is not a Corner of the whole 
World but what supplies a Stone towards the Infliction 
of such a Death upon the Blasphemy as justly belongs 
to it: and it has also this condemning of it, that Men 
would soon become Canibals to one another by embrac- 
ing it; Men being utterly destitute of any Principle 
to keep them honest in the Dark, there would be no 
Integrity left in the World, but they would be as the 
Fishes of the Sea to one another, and worse than the 
creeping Things, that have no Ruler over them. Indeed 
from every thing in the World there is this Voice more 
audible than the loudest Thunder to us; God hath spoken, 
and these two things have I heard! First, Believe and 


OF MAN 351 


adore a glorious GOD, who has made all these Things, 
and know thou that He will bring thee into Judgment! 
And then be careful to do nothing but what shall be for 
the Good of the Community which the glorious GOD has 
made thee a Member of. Were what God hath spoken 
duly regarded, and were these two things duly complied 
with, the World would be soon revived into a desirable 
Garden of God, and Mankind would be fetch’d up into 
very comfortable Circumstances; till then the World 
continues in a wretched Condition, full of doleful Crea- 
tures, with wild Beasts crying in its desolate Houses, 
Dragons in its most pleasant Palaces. And now declare, 
O every thing that is reasonable, declare and pronounce 
upon it whether it be possible that Maxims absolutely 
necessary to the Subsistence and Happiness of Mankind, 
can be Falsities? There is no possibility for this, that 
Cheats and Lyes must be so necessary, that the Ends 
which alone are worthy of a glorious GOD, cannot be 
attain’d without having them imposed upon us! 

Having dispatch’d the Atheist, with bestowing on 
him not many Thoughts, yet more than could be deserved 
by such an Jdiot; I will proceed now to propose two 
general Strokes of Piety, which will appear to a Christian 
Philosopher as unexceptionable as any Proposals that 
ever were made to him. 

First, the Works of the glorious God exhibited to 
our View, ’tis most certain they do bespeak, and they 
should excite our Acknowledgments of His Glories appeat- 
ing in them: the Great GOD is infinitely gratified 
in beholding the Displays of His own infinite Power, 
and Wisdom, and Goodness, in the Works which He 
has made; but it is also a most acceptable Gratifica- 
tion to Him, when such of His Works as are the rational 
Beholders of themselves, and of the rest, shall with 


352 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


devout Minds acknowledge His Perfections, which 
they see shining there. Never does one endued with 
Reason do any thing more evidently reasonable, than 
when he makes every thing that occurs to him in the 
vast Fabrick of the World, an Incentive to some agree- 
able Efforts and Salleys of Religion. What can any 
Man living object against the Piety of a Mind awaken’d 
by the sight of God in His Works, to such Thoughts 
as these: Verily, there is a glorious GOD! Verily, the 
GOD who does these things is worthy to be feared, worthy 
to be loved, worthy to be relied on! V. erily, all possible 
Obedience 1s due to such a GOD; and most abominable, most 
inexcusable is the Wickedness of all Rebellion against 
Him! A Mind kept under the Impression of such 
Thoughts as these, is an holy and a noble Mind, a 
Temple of God, a Temple filled with the Glory of God. 
There is nothing but what will afford an Occasion for 
the Thoughts; the oftner a Man improves the Occasion, 
the more does he glorify GOD, and answer the chief 
End of Man; and why should he not see occasion for it, 
by visiting for this purpose the several Classes of the 
Creatures (for Discipulus in hac Scholé erit Pertpateti- 
cus)! as he may have opportunity for so generous an 
Exercise! But since the horrid Evil of all Sin js to be 
inferred from this; it is a Rebellion against the Laws of 
the glorious GOD, who is the Maker and the Ruler of all 
Worlds; and it is a disturbance of the good Order wherein 
the glorious Maker and Ruler of all Things has placed 
them all; how much ought a quickned Horror of Sin to 
accompany this Contemplation, and produce this 
most agreeable Resolution, My God, I will for ever 
fear to offend thy glorious M ajesty! Nor is this all the 
Improvement which we are to make of what we see in 
1 “A disciple of this school must be a Peripatetic.” 


the Works of God; in our improving of them, we are | 
to accept of the Rebuke which they give to our Pre- 
sumption, in pretending to criticize upon the dark things 
which occur in the Dispensations of His Prowmdence; 
there is not any one of all the Creatures but what has 
those fine things in the Texture of it, which have never 
yet been reached by our Searches, and we are as much at 
a loss about the Intent as about the Texture of them; 
as yet we know not what the glorious God intends in 
His forming of those Creatures, nor what He has to do 
in them, and with them; He therein proclaims this 
Expectation, Surely they will fear me, and receive 
Instruction. And the Point wherein we are now in- 
structed is this: ‘What! Shall I be so vain as to be 
‘dissatisfied because I do not understand what is done 
‘by the glorious GOD in the Works of His Providence!’ 
O my Soul, hast thou not known, hast thou not heard 
concerning the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of 
the Ends of the Earth, that there is no searching of His 
Understanding? 

And then, secondly, the CHRIST of God must not 
be forgotten, who is the Lord of all. I am not ashamed 
of the Gospel of CHRIST, of which Iwill agirm constantly, 
that if the Philosopher do not call it in, he paganzzes, 
and leaves the finest and brightest Part of his Work 
unfinished. Let Colerus! persuade us if he can, that 
in the Time of John Frederick the Elector of Saxony 
there was dug up a Stone, on which there was a Repre- 
sentation of our crucified Saviour; but I cannot forbear 
saying, there is not a Stone any where which would 
not look black upon me, and speak my Condemnation, 
if my Philosophy should be so vain as to make me lay 
aside my Thoughts of my enthroned Saviour. Let 


1 Johann Jacob Coler, 16th century German theologian and writer. 


354 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


Lambecius,' if he please, employ his Learning upon 
the Name of our Saviour CHRIST, found in Letters 
naturally engraven at the bottom of a large 4 gate-Cup, 
which is to be seen among the Emperor’s Curiosities; 
I have never drank in that Cup, however I can more 
easily believe it than I can the Crucifixus ex Radice 
Crambres enatus,” or the Imago V irginis cum Filiolo, 
in Minera Ferri expressa,’ and several more such things, 
which the Publishers of the German Ephemerides* have 
mingled with their better Entertainments: but I will 
assert, that a glorious CHRIST is more to be considered 
in the Works of Nature than the Philosopher is generally 
aware of; and my CHRISTIAN Philosopher has not 
fully done his Part, till He who is the First-born of every 
Creature be come into Consideration with him. Alsted 
mentions a Siclus Jud@o-Christianus,®> which had on 
one side the Name JESUS, with‘ the Face of our 
Saviour, and on the other the Words that signify the 
King Messiah comes with Peace, and God becomes a 
Man; and Leusden® says he had a couple of these Coins 
in his possession. I have nothing to say on the behalf 
of the Zeal in those Christianized Jews, who probably 
were the Authors of these Coins, a Zeal that boil’d into 
so needless an Expression of an Homage, that indeed 


1 Peter Lambeck, 1628-80, German historian. 

2 “The crucifix springing from a cabbage root.” Mather misprints 
“crambres” for ‘‘crambes.”’ 

4“ Tmage of the Virgin and Child moulded in iron ore.” 

4'The “German Ephemerides” was as cientific periodical in Ger- 
many, Miscellanea Curiosa sive Ephemeridum Medico-Physicarum 
Germanicarum, etc. Cotton Mather refers to articles in the volume 
for 1670. 

*“ A Jewish-Christian shekel (coin).” 

® Johann Leusden, 1624-1699, Dutch scholar, and friend of Cotton 
Mather’s father. 


OF MAN 355 


cannot be too much expressed in the instituted ways of 
it to a Redeemer, whose Kingdom 15 not of this World: 
but this I will say, all the Creatures in this World are 
part of His Kingdom; there are no Creatures but what are 
His Medals, on every one of them the Name of JESUS 
is to be found inscribed. Celebrate, OQ Danhaver,! 
thy Granatilla, the Peruvian Plant, on which a strong 
Imagination finds a Representation of the Instruments 
employed in the Sufferings of our Saviour, and espe- 
cially the bloody Sweat of His Agonies; were the Repre- 
sentation as really and lively made as has been imagined, 
I would subscribe to the Epigram upon it, which 
concludes: 


Flos hic ita forma vincit omnes Flosculos, 
Ut totus optet esse Spectator Oculus.’ 


But I will, with the Exercise of the most solid Reason, 
by every part of the World, as well as the Vegetables, 
be led to my Saviour. 

A View of the Creation is to be taken, with suitable 
Acknowledgments of the glorious CHRIST, in whom 
the eternal Son of God has personally united Himself to 
ONE of His Creatures, and becomes on Ais account 
propitious to all the rest; our Piety indeed will not be 
Christianity if HE be left unthought upon. 

This is HE, of whom we are instructed, Col. 1. 16, 17. 
All things were created by Him, and for Him; and He 1s 
before all things, and by Him all things consist. It is no 
contemptible Thought wherewith De Sabunde has 
entertained us: Productio Mundi a Deo facta de Nthilo, 
arguit aliam productionem, summam, occultam, ©&9 

1 Johann Conrad Danhawer, 1603-1666, German theologian. 


2“ This flower so surpasses all others in its form that every eye 
may wish to see it.” 


356 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


aternam in Deo, que est de sua propria Natura, in qua 
producitur Deus de Deo, &¥ per quam ostenditur summa 
[rinitas 1n Deo. And certainly he that as a Father 
does produce a Son, but as an Artist only produce an 
House, has a Value for the Son which he has not for 
the House; yea, we may say, if GOD had not first, 
and from Eternity, been a Father to our Saviour, He 
would never have exerted Himself as an Artist in that 
Fabrick, which He has built by the Might of His Power, 
and for the Honour of His Majesty! 

The Great Sir Francis Bacon has a notable Passage 
in his Confession of Faith: I believe that God is so holy, as 
that it 1s impossible for Him to be pleased in any Creature, 
tho the Work of his own Hands, without beholding of the 
same in the Face of a Mediator; without which it was 
wmpossible for Him to have descended to any Work of 
Creation, but He should have enjoyed the blessed and 
individual Society of three Persons in the Godhead for 
ever; but out of His eternal and infinite Goodness and 
Love purposing to become a Creature, and communicate 
with His Creatures, He ordained in His eternal Counsel 
that one Person of the Godhead should be united to one 
Nature, and to one particular of His Creatures; that so in 
the Person of the Mediator the true Ladder might be 
fixed, whereby God might descend to His Creatures, and 
Hts Creatures ascend to Him. 

It was an high Flight of Origen,? who urges, that 
our High-Priest’s having tasted of Death, trép TAVTOS, 
FOR ALL, is to be extended even to the very Szars, 


1“ The creation of the world, made by God from nothing, shows 
that there is another creation, high, secret, and eternal, in God, which 
is of His own nature, in which God is created from God, and by which 
is made plain the Trinity in God.” Raymond de Sebonde, d. 1432, 
was a Spanish physician, author of Theologia Naturalis. 

* Alexandrian Christian writer of the 2d and 3d centuries. 





OF MAN 357 


which would otherwise have been impure in the sight 
of God; and thus are ALL THINGS restored to the 
Kingdom of the Father. Our Apostle Paul in a famous 
Passage to the Colossians [1. 19, 20.] may seem highly 
to favour this Flight. One says upon it, ‘If this be so, 
‘we need not break the Glasses of Galileo, the Spots 
‘may be washed out of the Sun, and total Nature 
‘sanctified to God that made it.’ 

Yea, the sacred Scriptures plainly and often invite 
us to a Conception, which Dr. Goodwin has chosen to 
deliver in such Terms as these: ‘The Son of God per- 
‘sonally and actually existing as the Son of God with 
“God, afore the World or any Creature was made, He 
‘undertaking and covenanting with God to become 
‘a Man, yea, that Man which He hath now taken up 
‘into one Person with Himself, as well for this End, 
‘as for other Ends more glorious; God did in the Fore- 
‘knowledge of that, and in the Assurance of that Coven- 
‘nant of His, proceed to the creating of all things which 
‘He hath made; and without the Intuition of this, or 
‘having this in His Eye, He would not have made any 
‘thing which He hath made.’ 

O CHRISTIAN, Jift up now thine Eyes, and look 
from the place where thou art to all Points of the Com- 
pass, and concerning whatever thou seest, allow that 
all these things were formed for the Sake of that Glorious- 
One, who is now God manifest in the Flesh of our JESUS; 
’tis on His Account that the eternal Godhead has the 
Delight in all these things, which preserves them in 
their Being, and grants them the Help, in the obtaining 
whereof they continue to this day. 

But were they not all made by the hand, as well as 
for the Sake of that Glorious-ONE? They were verily 
so. Omy JESUS, it was that Son of God who now dwells 


358 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


in thee, in and by whom the Godhead exerted the Power, 
which could be exerted by none but an all-powerful GO), 
in the creating of the World! He is that Worp of GOD 
by whom all things were made, and without whom was 
not any thing made that was made. 

This is not all that we have to think upon; we see 
an incomparable Wisdom of GOD in His Creatures; 
one cannot but presently infer, What an incomprehensi- 
ble Wisdom then in the Methods and Affairs of that 
Redemption, whereof the glorious GOD has laid the Plan 
in our JESUS! Things which the Angels desire to look 
into. But, O evangelized Mind, go on, mount up, soar 
higher, think at this rate; the infinite Wisdom which 
formed all these things 1s peculiarly seated in the Son of 
God; He is that reflexive Wisdom of the eternal Father, 
and that Image of the invisible God, by whom all things 
were created; in Him there is after a peculiar manner 
the original [dea and Archetype of every thing that 
offers the infinite Wisdom of God to our Admiration. 
Wherever we see the Wisdom of God admirably shining 
before us, we are invited to such a Thought as this; 
this Glory is originally to be found in thee, O our Imman- 
uel! *Tis in Him transcendently. But then ’tis impossi- 
ble to stop without adding, How glorious, how wondrous, 
how lovely art thou, O our-Saviour! 

Nor may we lay aside a grateful Sense of this, that as 
the Son of God is the Upholder of all Things in all Worlds, 
thus, that it is owing to his potent Intercession that the 
Sin of Man has made no more havock on this our World. 
This our World has been by the Sin of Man so perverted 
from the true Ends of it, and rendred full of such loath- 
some and hateful Regions, and such Scelerata Castra,} 
that the Revenges of God would have long since rendred 

1“Wicked settlements.” 


OF MAN As 
it as a fiery Oven, if our blessed JESUS had not inter- 


ceded for it: O my Saviour, what would have become of 
me, and of all that comforts me, 1f thy Interposition had 
not preserved us! 

We will add one thing more: Tho the one GOD 
in His three Subsistences be the Governor as well as the 
Creator of the World, and so the Son of God ever had 
what we call the natural Government of the World, yet 
upon the Fall of Mankind there 1s a mediatory Kingdom 
that becomes expedient, that so guilty Man, and that 
which was Jost, may be brought to God; and the sin- 
gular Honour of this mediatory Kingdom is more 1mme- 
diately and most agreeably assign’d to the Son of God, 
who assumes the Man JESUS into His own Person, and 
has all Power in Heaven and Earth given to Him; all 
things are now commanded and ordered by the Son of 
God in the Man upon the Throne, and this to the Glory of 
the Father, by whom the mediatory Kingdom is erected, 
and soconferred. This peculiar Kingdom thus managed 
by the Son of God in our JESUS, will cease when the 
illustrious Ends of it are all accomplished, and then the 
Son of God no longer having such a distinct Kingdom of 
His own, shall return to those eternal Circumstances, 
wherein He shall reign with the Father and the Holy 
Spirit, one God, blessed for ever. In the mean time, 
what Creatures can we behold without being obliged 
to some such Doxology as this; O Son of God, incarnate 
and enthroned in my JESUS, this is part of thy Do- 
minion! What a great King art thou,and what a Name hast 
thou above every Name, and how vastly extended 1s thy 
Dominion! Dominion and Fear is with thee, and there 
is no Number of thine Armies! All the Inhabitants of the 
Earth, and their most puissant Emperors, are to be 
reputed as nothing before thee! 


360 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


But then at last I am losing myself in such Thoughts 
as these: Who can tell what Uses our Saviour will put 
all these Creatures to at the Restitution of all things, when 
He comes to rescue them from the Vanity which as yet 
captivates them and incumbers them; and His raised 
People in the new Heavens will make their Visits to a 
new Earth, which they shall find flourishing in Paradi- 
saick Regularities? Lord, what thou meanest in them, I 
know not now, but I shall know hereafter! I go on, Who 
can tell how sweetly our Saviour may feast His chosen 
People in the Future State, with Exhibitions of all these 
Creatures, in their various Natures, and their curious 
Beauties to them? Lord, I hope for an eternally pro- 
gressive Knowledge, from the Lamb of God successively 
leading me to the Fountains of it! 

[ recover out of my more conjectural Prognostications, 
with resolving what may at present yield to a serious 
Mind a Satisfaction, to which this World knows none 
superior: When in a way of occasional Reflection | 
employ the Creatures as my Teachers, I will by the 
Truths wherein those ready Monitors instruct me, be 
led to my glorious JESUS; I will consider the Truths 
as they are in JESUS, and count my Asceticks deficient, 
till [ have some Thoughts of HIM and of His Glories 
awakened in me. To conclude, It is a good Passage 
which a little Treatise entitled, Theologia Ruris, or, 
The Book of Nature, breaks off withal, and I might 
make it my Conclusion: ‘If we mind Heaven whilst 
‘we live here upon Earth, this Earth will serve to conduct 
‘us to Heaven, thro the Merits and Mediation of the 
‘Son of God, who was made the Son of Man, and came 
‘thence on purpose into this lower World to convey us 
‘up thither.’ 

I will finish with a Speculation, which my most 


OF MAN 361 


valuable Dr. Cheyne has a little more largely prosecuted 
and cultivated. 

All intelligent compound Beings have their whole 
Entertainment in_these three Principles, the DESIRE, 
the OBJECT, and the SENSATION arising from the 
Congruity between them; this Analogy is preserved 
full and clear thro the Spiritual World, yea, and thro 
the material also; so universal and perpetual an Analogy 
can arise from nothing but its Pattern and Archetype 
in the infinite God or Maker; and could we carry it up 
to the Source of it, we should find the TRINITY of 
Persons in the eternal GODHEAD admirably exhibited 
to us. In the GODHEAD we may first apprehend a 
Desire, an infinitely active, ardent, powerful Thought, 
proposing of Satisfaction; let this represent GOD the 
FATHER: but it is not possible for any Object but 
God Himself to satisfy Himself, and fill His Desire of 
Happiness; therefore HE Himself reflected in upon 
Himself, and contemplating His own infinite Perfec- 
tions, even the Brightness of His Glory, and the express 
Image of His Person, must answer this glorious Inten- 
tion; and this may represent to us GOD the SON. 
Upon this Contemplation, wherein GOD Himself does 
behold, and possess, and enjoy Himself, there cannot 
but arise a Love, a Joy, an Acquiescence of God Himself 
within Himself, and worthy of a God; this may shadow 
out to us the third and the last of the Principles in this 
mysterious Ternary, that is to say, the Holy SPIRIT. 
Tho these three Relations of the Godhead in itself, when 
derived analogically down to Creatures, may appear 
but Modifications of a real Subsistence, yet in the 
supreme Infinitude of the Divine Nature, they must be 
infinitely real and living Principles. ‘Those which are 
but Relations when transferred to created Beings, are 


362 THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER 


glorious REALITIES in the infinite God. And in this 
View of the Holy Trinity, low as it is, it is impossible 
the SON should be without the FATHER, or the 
FATHER without the SON, or both without the Holy 
SPIRIT; it is impossible the SON should not be nec- 
essarily and eternally begotten of the FATHER, or 
that the Holy SPIRIT should not necessarily and 
eternally proceed both from Him and from the SON. 
Thus from what occurs throughout the whole Creation, 
Reason forms an umperfect Idea of this incomprehen- 
sible Mystery. 

But it is time to stop here, and indeed how can we 
go any further! 


FINIS 


“POLITICAL FABLES.” 


I. THE NEW SETTLEMENT OF THE BIRDS IN 
NEW ENGLAND. 


The birds had maintained good order among them- 
selves for several years, under the shelter of charters 
by Jupiter granted to several flocks among them: but 
heaven, to chastise many faults too observable in its 
birds, left them to be deprived of their ancient settle- 
ments. There were birds of all sorts in their several 
flocks; for some catched fish, some lived upon grains; 
the woodpeckers also made a great figure among them; 
some of them scraped for their living with their claws; 
and many supplied their nests, from beyond sea. Geese 
you may be sure there were good store, as there are 
everywhere. Moreover, when they had lost their 
charters, those poetical birds called harpies became 
really existent, and visited these flocks, not so much 
that they might build nests of their own, as plunder 
and pull down the nests of others. 

2. There were many endeavours used by an eagle 
and a goldfinch, afterwards accompanied with two more, 
—no less deserving the love of all the flocks, than de- 
sirous to serve their interest,—that flew into Jupiter's 
palace, for the resettlement of good government among 
the birds. These endeavours did for awhile prosper 
no further than to stop the inroads of harpies or locusts; 
but at length Jupiter’s court was willing that Jupiter's 
grace, which would have denied nothing for the advan- 
tage of them, whose wings had carried them a thousand 
leagues to serve his empire, should not be hindered from 

363 


364 POLITICAL FABLES 


giving them a comfortable settlement, though not 
exactly 1n their old forms. 

3- Upon this there grew a difference of opinion be- 
tween some that were concerned for the welfare of the 
birds. Some were of opinion, that if Jupiter would not 
reinstate the birds in all their ancient circumstances, 
they had better accept of just nothing at all, but let 
all things be left for the harpies to commit as much 
rapine as they were doing when they were ejecting 
every poor bird out of his nest, that would not, at an 
excessive rate, produce a patent for it; and when Canary 
birds! domineered over all the flocks. Others were of 
opinion, that the birds ought rather thankfully to 
accept the offers of Jupiter; and if anything were yet 
grievous, they might shortly see a fitter season to ask 
further favours, especially considering that Jupiter 
made them offer of such things as all the other American 
birds would part with more than half the feathers on 
their backs to purchase. He offered that the birds 
might be everlastingly confirmed in their titles to their 
nests and fields. He offered that not so much as a 
twig should be plucked from any tree the birds would 
roost upon, without their own consent. He offered 
that the birds might constantly make their own laws, 
and annually choose their own rulers. He offered that 
all strange birds might be made uncapable of a seat 
in their council.2 He offered that it should be made 
impossible for any to disturb the birds in singing of 
their songs to the praise of their Maker, for which they 
had sought liberty in the wilderness. Finally, he offered 
that the king’s-fisher should have his commission to be 
their governour until they had settled what good orders 


1“ Canary bird” was a slang term for rogue. 
“Strange birds” = non-citizens. 


BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND 365 


among them they pleased; and that he should be more 
concerned than ever now to defend them from the 
French kites that were abroad. The king’s-fisher 
indeed was to have his negative upon the birds, but the 
birds were to have a negative too upon the king’s- 
fisher; and this was a privilege beyond what was en- 
joyed by the birds in any of the plantations, or even 
in Ireland itself. 

4. The birds, not being agreed in their opinion, 
resolved that they would refer it to reasonable crea- 
tures to advise them upon this question—which of these 
was to be chosen; but when the reasonable creatures 
heard the question, they all declared none that had 
any reason could make any question of it. 


II]. THE ELEPHANT’S CASE A LITTLE STATED. 


When Jupiter had honoured the elephant with a 
commission to be governour over the wilderness, there 
were certain beasts that began to quarrel with him for 
accepting that commission. The chief matter of 
mutter among themselves was to this purpose: They 
had nothing to say against the elephant; he was as 
good as he was great; he loved his king and country 
better than himself, and was as universally beloved. 
But (they said) they feared he was but a shoeing-horn; 
in a year or two either Isgrim the wolf, or Bruin the 
bear, would succeed him. Jupiter’s commissions may 
come into such hands as will most cruelly oppress those, 
whom Jupiter most graciously designs to protect. 

2. The elephant understood these growlings, and 
assembling the malecontents, he laid these charms upon 
them: “My countrymen, ’tis I that have kept off 
the shoe, whereof ye are so afraid. I had refused the 


366 POLITICAL FABLES 


commission for your government, if I had not seen that 
you had certainly come into Isgrim’s or Bruin’s hands 
upon my refusal. My desire is, that Jupiter may have 
the satisfaction of seeing you saved from the dangers 
of perishing either by division among yourselves, or 
by invasion from abroad, was what caused me to 
accept my commission. Besides, Jupiter hath now 
favoured you with such circumstances, that if Isgrim 
or Bruin themselves should come, they could not hurt 
you without your own consent. They might not raise 
one tax, or make one law, or constitute one civil office, 
or send one soldier out of the province, without your 
concurrence. And if, after all that I have done for you, 
not only employing of my purse, but also venturing 
my life to serve you, you have no better name for me 
than a shoeing-horn, yet I have at least obtained this 
for you, that you have time to shape your foot, so as, 
whatever shoe comes, it shall sit-easy upon you.” 

3. Upon this the whole forest, with grateful and 
cheerful hearts, gave thanks unto the elephant; and 
they aspired to such an exercise of reason, in this as 
well as in other cases, that they might not be con- 
demned to graze under Nebuchadnezer’s belly. 


Til. MERCURY’S NEGOTIATION. 


Mercury had been long diverted from his desired 
employment of carrying messages between earth and 
heaven, by his agency in Jupiter’s palace on the behalf 
of the sheep, for whom he was willing to do the kindness 
of a shepherd. It grieved his heart within him to see 
the beasts of prey breaking in upon the sheep, after 
their folds had been by the foxes broken down. 

2. He laboured with an assiduous diligence to get 


MERCURY’S NEGOTIATION 367 


the sheep accommodated in all their expectations: but 
after long waiting and seeking to get their folds rebuilt 
after the old fashion, he found it necessary to comply 
with such directions as Jupiter, by the advice of Janus, 
had given for the new shaping of the folds; otherwise 
he saw the poor sheep had been left without any folds 
at all; and he could not but confess, the new modelling 
of the folds would more effectually defend them, in 
these days of common danger, from the wolves, though 
some inconveniences in it had caused him always to use 
all means for the sheep’s better satisfaction. 

3. When Mercury returned to the sheep, he found 
them strangely metamorphosed from what they were, 
and miserably discontented. He found that such things 
as the sheep would have given three quarters of the fleece 
on their backs to have purchased, when he first went 
from them, they were now scarce willing to accept of. 
He found that there were, (though a few,) which had 
the skins of sheep on them, and yet, by their claws and 
growls, were indeed, he knew not what. He was ready 
to inquire, whether no mad dogs had let fall their 
slaver upon the honest sheep, since he found here and 
there one begun to bark like them, and he feared whether 
these distempers might not hinder their ever being 
folded more. 

4. Orpheus had an harp, which sometimes formerly 
had reduced the beasts unto a temper little short of 
reason, and being jealous lest the hard censures bleated 
out against Mercury (as if he had been the cause of 
their new forms now brought upon the folds) might 
produce ill effects, he improved his harp upon this 
occasion. I don’t remember the rhythm of his notes, 
but the reason was to this purpose: “Pray, all you 
friends, which of Mercury’s administrations is it 


368 POLITICAL FABLES 


whereat you are so much offended? Are you angry 
because he evidently ventured the ruin of his person 
and family by the circumstances of his first appearance 
in Saturn’s palace for you? Are you angry because, 
for divers years together, he did, with an industry 
indefatigable to a prodigy, solicit for the restoration of 
your old folds; but with a vexation like that of Sysiphus, 
who was to roll a great stone up an high hill, from 
whence he was presently kicked down, so that the 
labour was all to begin again? Are you angry because 
he has employed all the interest which God has wonder- 
fully given him with persons of the greatest quality, 
to increase the number of your powerful friends: 
addressing the king and queen, the nobility, the con- 
vention and the parliaments, until the resettling of 
your old folds was most favourably voted for you? 
Is your anger because the signal hand of heaven over- 
ruled all these endeavours? Or is your displeasure 
that he hath cost you a little money to support his 
negotiations? I am to tell you, that he spent two 
hundred pounds of his own personal estate in your 
service—never like to be repaid. He made over all his 
own American estate, that he might borrow more to 
serve you. At length he has obtained in boon for your 
college, and in the bounty, which he lately begged of 
the royal Juno, (a bounty worth more than fourteen 
or sixteen hundred pounds sterling,) got more for you 
than he has yet expended for your agency. Had you 
not starved your own cause, you had never missed so 
much as you say you have of your own expectations. 
Besides, how came you to have your title to all your 
lands and properties confirmed for ever? Not one of 
you doth own one foot of land, but what you are now 
beholden to Mercury for your being undisturbed in it. 


MERCURY’S NEGOTIATION 369 


Are you displeased because you have not a reversion 
of the judgment against your folds? It was none of 
his fault; and had such a thing happened, you had then 
been far more miserable than you are now like to be: 
for both Plymouth and the eastern provinces had been 
most certainly put under a commission government;. 
so likewise had Hampshire; and if they should have a 
Brellin,! yet his government would have reached as 
far south as Salem itself. How finely had your flock 
been deprived of your trade by this, and squeezed into 
an atom! Nor could you have proceeded again, as 
formerly, upon your charter, without being quo- 
warrantoed. Are you displeased because he did accept 
of Jupiter’s offers? I say he did not accept, and the 
way is left open for you to recover all the liberties you 
would have, when you see a time to move in a legal 
way for it. Yea, he did absolutely reject as many of 
the offers as he could, and procured them to be altered. 
The rest he did not refuse, because you had infallibly 
been left open to a western condition,” if he had gone 
on to protest. Moreover you yourselves had _ for- 
bidden him to refuse. Are you troubled because your 
liberties, whether as Christians or as Englishmen, are 
fully secured? Are you troubled because you have 
privileges above any part of the English nation what- 
soever, either abroad or at home? Are you troubled 
that your officers are to be for ever your own; so that, 
if you please, you may always have your judges as at 
the first, and the counsellors as at the beginning! Is 


1 Probably this is a misprint for Bruin, the bear, who, in the Rey- 
nard story, conspired to make himself King in place of the lion. Or, 
it may bea misprint for Belin, the ram, a character in the same story. 

2“ Western” is used in the not unusual sense of “ declining,” “near- 
ing the end.” 


370 POLITICAL FABLES 


it your trouble that by being without your charter, 
you are put into a condition to do greater and better 
things for yourselves than the charter did contain, or 
could have done? Did any man living more zealously 
oppose those one or two things that you account 
undesirable, than this faithful Mercury, at whom you 
fret for those things? Or must very much good be 
frowardly thrown away, because ’tis not all? If you 
would have more, don’t blame your Mercury that you 
have so much.”—So sang Orpheus, and, for the better 
harmony of the musick, eleven more of the celestial 
choristers! joined with him in it. 

5. The sound of those things caused the sheep to be 
a little better satisfied; but Mercury was not much 
concerned whether they were or no, for he looked else- 
where for all the reward of his charitable undertakings; 
and he knows, he that would do froward sheep a kind- 
ness must do it them against their wills; only he wished 
the sheep would have a care of all snakes in the grass, 
who did mischief by insinuating, and employed their 
hisses to sow discord. 


IV. An additional STORY OF THE DOGS AND 
THE WOLVES, the Substance of which was used, 
an hundred and fifty Years ago, by Melancthon,? 
to unite the Protestants. 


The wolves and the dogs were going to meet each 
other in a battle, upon a certain old quarrel that was 
between them; and the wolves, that they might know 
the strength of the dogs aforehand, sent forth a scout. 

2. The scout returned, and informed the wolves that 
the dogs were more numerous than they. Neverthe- 


1 See Introduction, Section V. 
? Philipp Melancthon, the great German reformer. 


THE DOGS AND THE WOLVES 371 


less, he bid them not be discouraged; for the dogs were 
not only divided into three or four several bodies, which 
had little disposition to help one another, but also they 
were very quarrelsome among themselves. One party 
was for having the army formed one way, and another 
party another. Some were not satisfied in their com- 
manders; and the commanders themselves had their 
emulations. Nor did they want those among them, 
that accounted it more necessary to lie down where 
they were, and hunt and kill flees, than march forth 
to subdue wolves abroad. In short, there was little 
among them but snapping and snarling at one another; 
And therefore, said he, monsieurs,' let’s have at them: 
we shall easily play the wolf upon them that have 
played the dog upon one another. 

3. This is a story so old, that, as the good man said, 
I hope it is not true. 


1 This word identifies the wolves as the French. 


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COTTON MATHER’S LETTER TO DR. 
WOODWARD ABOUT “AN HORRID 
SNOW” 


TodeeX om, 1717: 
[December Io, 1717] 


Sr 

Tho’ we are gott so far onward at the Beginning of 
another Winter, yett we have not forgott the Last: 
which at the Latter End whereof, we were Entertained 
& overwhelmed with a Snow, which was attended with 
some Things that were uncommon enough, to afford 
matter for a letter from us. The Winter was not so 
bad as that wherein J'acitus tells us that Corbulo made 
his Expedition against the Parthians. Nor like that 
which proved so fatal to the Beasts & Birds, in the 
Days of the Emperour Justinian [nor?] that wherein 
the very Fishes were killed under the Freezing Sea, 
when Phocas did as much to the men whom Tyrants 
treat like the Fishes of the Sea.!. But the Conclusion 
of our Winter was hard enough, & was too formidable 
to be easily forgotten: and of a peece with what you 
had in Europe, a year before. The Snow was the 
Chief Thing that made it so. For tho’ rarely does a 
Winter pass us, wherein we may not say with Pliny, 
Ingens Hyeme Nivis apud nos copia;? yett the Last 
Winter brought with it a Snow that Excelled them all. 
A Snow tis true, not equal to that which once fell and 
Lay Twenty Cubits high, about the Beginning of 

1Corbulo, Roman general in the first century; Phocas was a 


tyrannical emperor of Constantinople from 602 to 610. 
2“ A preat supply of snow with us in winter.” 


373 


374 COTTON MATHER’S LETTER 


October, in the parts about the Euxine Sea. Nor to that, 
which the French Annals tell us, kept falling for twenty 
Nine weeks together. Nor to several mentioned by 
Boethius, wherein vast Numbers of people, and of 
Cattel, perished; Nor to those that Strabo finds upon 
Caucasus and Rhodiginus in Armenia... But yett such 
an one, and attended with such Circumstances, as 
may deserve to be Remembred. 

On the Twentieth of the Last F ebruary, there came on 
a Snow, which being added unto what had covered the 
ground a few Days before, made a Thicker Mantle 
for our Mother? than what was usual: And the Storm 
with it, was for the following Day so violent, as to make 
all communication between the Neighbours every where 
to cease. People for some Hours could not pass from 
one side of a Street unto another, and the poor Women, 
who happened at this critical time to fall into Travail, 
were putt into Hardships which anon produced many 
odd Stories for us. But on the Twenty-fourth Day of 
the Month comes Pelion upon Ossa. Another Snow 
came on, which almost buried the Memory of the for- 
mer: With a Storm so furious, that Heaven laid an 
Interdict on the Religious Assemblies throughout the 
countrey on this Lords-day, the like whereunto had 
never been seen before. The Indians near an hundred 
years old, affirm, that their Fathers never told them 
of any thing that equall’d it. Vast Numbers of Cattel 
were destroy’d in this Calamity; Whereof some that 
were of the Stronger Sort, were found standing Dead 
on their Legs, as if they had been alive, many weeks 
after, when the Snow melted away. And others had 

1 Strabo, geographer of the first century B.c.; Luigi Rhodiginus 


was an Italian philologist and savant, who lived from 1450-1525. 


? “Mother Earth.” 


COTTON MATHER’S LETTER 375 


their Eyes glazed over with Ice at such a rate, that 
being not far from the Sea, they went out of their way, 
and drowned them there. 

One Gentleman, on whose Farms, there were now 
Lost above eleven hundred Sheep, which with other 
cattel were Interred (Shall I Say, or Inniv’d) in the 
Snow; writes me That there were Two Sheep very 
singularly circumstanced. For no Less than Eight & 
Twenty Days after the Storm, the people pulling out 
the Ruines of above an hundred Sheep, out of a Snow- 
bank, which Lay sixteen foot high drifted over them, 
there were Two found alive, which had been there all 
this time, & kept themselves alive by Eating the Wool 
of their Dead Companions. When they were taken out, 
they shed their own Fleeces, but soon gott into good 
Case again. 

Sheep were not the only creatures, that Lived un- 
accountably for whole weeks without their usual 
Sustenance, entirely buried in the Snow-drifts. The 
Swine had a share with the Sheep in Strange Survivals. 
A man had a couple of Young Hogs, which he gave over 
for Dead; But on the twenty-seventh day after their 
Burial, they made their way out of a Snow-bank, at 
the bottom of which they had found a Little Tansy 
to feed upon. 

The Poultry as unaccountably survived as these. 
Hens were found alive, after Seven Days; Turkeys were 
found alive, after five &F Twenty Days; Buried in the 
Snow, and at a Distance from the Ground; and al- 
together destitute of any thing to feed them. 

The Number of Creatures, that kept a Rigid Fast, 
shutt up in Snow, for several weeks together, & were 
found Alive after all, have yielded surprizing stories 
to us. 


376 COTTON MATHER’S LEAGEER 
The Wild Creatures of the Woods, (the Outgoings of 


the Evening) made their Descent as well as they could 
in this Time of Scarcity for them, towards the Sea-side. 
A vast multitude of Deer for the Same Cause taking the 
Same Course, & the Deep Snow Spoiling them of their 
only Defence: which is, To Run, they became such 
a prey to those Devourers, that it is thought, not one 
in Twenty Escaped. 

But here again occurr’d a Curiosity. 

These carniverous Sharpers, and especially the 
Foxes, would make their Nocturnal Visits, to the Pens, 
where the people had their Sheep defended from them. 
The poor Ewes big with young were so terrified with 
the frequent Approaches of the Foxes, & the Terror 
had such Impression on them, that most of the Lambs 
brought forth in the Spring following, were of Monsieur 
Reinard’s complexion, when the Dams were all either 
White or Black. 

It was remarkable, that immediately after the Fall 
of the Snow, an infinite multitude of Sparrows, made 
their Appearance; but then after a short continuance 
all disappeared. 

It is incredible, how much Damage was done to the 
Orchards; For the Snow freezing to a Crust, as high as 
the Boughs of the Trees, anon Splitt them to peeces. 
The Cattle also, walking on the Crusted Snow, a 
dozen foot from the Ground, so fed upon the Trees as 
very much to damnify them. 

The Ocean was in a prodigious Ferment, and after 
it was over, Vast Heaps of Little Shells were driven 
ashore, where they were never seen before. Mighty 
Shoals of Porpoises, also kept a Play-day in the Dis- 
turbed waves of our Harbours. 

The odd Accidents befalling many poor people, whose 


COTTON MATHER’S LETTER 377 


Cottages were totally covered with the Snow, & not 
the very tops of their Chimneys to be seen, would 
afford a Story; But there not being any Relacion to 
philosophy in them, I forbear them. And now, lam 
Satis Terris Nivis.1—And here is enough of my Winter- 
tale. If it serve to no other purpose, yett it will give 
me an opportunity to tell you, That Nine months ago, 
I did a thousand times wish myself with you in Gresham- 
Colledge, which 1s never so horribly Snow’d upon. But 
instead of so great a satisfaction, all I can attain to, 
is the pleasure of talking with you in this Epistolary 
way, and subscribing myself, 

Syr, Yours with an Affection that knows no Winter 

[Cotton Mather] 
D' Woodward. 
1 “Now enough of snow on earth.” 


2 Woodward lived at Gresham College, where he was professor of 
physic. 













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